The Gifted, the Fairies, and the Sabers
by Lilla Taura
Summary: When the 3 most powerful girls at Aurora Academy for the Gifted are thrown into a world they've never even heard of, they find that they suddenly have some new, strange tattoos. Will they find a way to get home and finish their magic assessment exams? [OCs from a book I'm writing are main girls Rogue, Natsu, Laxus. T-some language. Starts in my world then shifts to Fiore. Enjoy!]
1. 1: Preparations

_Hey guys! So an idea popped into my head a few hours ago that was something along the lines of 'Oh! I wonder what would happen if my main OCs met the characters of Fairy Tail!', and so, this was born. I hope I caught all of my errors and such before posting and I hope you guys like this!_

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Chapter 1: Preparations.

It was time, finally. The end of the year was near and it was time for final exams. Lilla grinned at herself as she walked down the hall towards the entrance to this year's brand new battle arena, receiving many 'good luck's and smiles along the way. The exams were being held there as a way to honor the school's newest building. Building? Hah, more like stadium. But even the word stadium made it sound much smaller than it actually was.

As the blonde rounded the corner and into the locker room, she shifted into her cover-up form, a tiger, and grumbled a bit. She snorted as she padded to the back of the locker room and to the showers. The other two girls were already here, which caused the tigress to grumble again, especially as the stench of wolf hit her nostrils. She snorted and rolled her eyes, as if trying to shoo the scent away.

The aquamarine-eyed brunette sitting on the bench in front of the showers raised her hand and waved at the tigress. "Morning Lilla," she said gently, eyes sparkling with delight while the tigress simply rolled hers and padded on by her and into a stall. Espeo laughed to herself as she pulled her brown hair over her shoulders and played with it a bit, twisting small pieces of it into tight braids causing the purple bits to become more noticeable.

"Where's Xandra? I can smell her but she's not here?" Lilla called from inside the stall. She'd shifted back to her human form and turned the knob on the shower, waiting for the water to warm up a bit before turning it all the way on.

Espeo looked over her shoulder towards the stall, as if Lilla would be able to hear her better even though she knew it was unnecessary. "Her bag is here, I think she went to talk to someone though. We have a few hours, she'll be back eventually."

Lilla nodded to herself and didn't respond. The third girl was probably back in her dorm sleeping, considering how early it was. She shrugged off her curiosity and pulled the shower knob a bit so the water's pressure would increase.

Espeo sighed to herself before standing and walking over to her locker. Since she was a student athlete, she had her own specific locker in the locker room. Lilla and Xandra had their own lockers as well and they happened to be the lockers on either side of her own. She chuckled at that thought, never really thinking about that before. "How odd," she muttered before looking herself over in the tiny mirror connected to the door. She blinked a few times before scrunching her face up and laughing at herself. It was far too early for this, why was she even here already anyways?

The brunette simply shrugged at herself and began rummaging through all of the clothes in her locker. What would she wear for the exams today? Something she could maneuver in easily and maybe something sexy just for the hell of it. Hey, she had a reputation to uphold. "Doesn't everyone?" she muttered to herself and then sighed, looking in the mirror again. She shook her head at herself and whispered, "You're so disappointing."

Outside in the Academy Gardens, a girl with orange and black tiger-striped hair was leaning against a large boulder that had a few words engraved at the top. 'You will be remembered, always.' Beside where the girl was sitting, an infinity symbol with the name Mia inside of it had been sketched with silver paint. The brown eyed girl looked over at the writing and put her hand on the symbol. "If there's anything you can do to help me today, Mia, please feel free."

Xandra chuckled to herself and smiled at the writing for a moment before looking around the gardens. Students were beginning to pop up here and there, and she couldn't help but wonder how long she'd been outside. She should be getting ready for her exam and was sure Lilla and Espeo were already in the locker room.

She stood up and stretched her arms over her head a bit before looking over her shoulder and down at the symbol once more. "You know, it's funny. I would've never expected you to make them my friends. The four of us never really got along." Xandra sighed and shook her head, a small smile playing on her lips. "You and I stayed away from Lilla as much as possible. Espeo, she was always too caught up in lacrosse and training and she had the Shifters. Something about always needing to prove something to her family, I think." Xandra chuckled and smiled at the boulder before walking off towards the school's new arena. "I would've never thought that the two of them would be the only ones to give a shit when I lost you," she muttered as she made her way down the new, stone path. "We were the most powerful team the school had ever seen, and today? Today, I'll make sure that they never forget our names, Mia."


	2. 2: Team Effort

_Hey everyone! I hope you like this story so far! This is the last bit of the boring introduction crap, I promise! Next chapter the exams will begin but, hmm, seems like these exams may not go as planned!_

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Chapter 2: Team Effort

"Let's go! We've got a half hour!" Lilla called as she stood in the doorway, ready to leave the locker room. She put her hand on her hip and rolled her eyes as the other girls didn't emerge from the changing room. Her armor clanked against itself gently as she made her way around the corner only to find Espeo staring at herself in the mirror. "Really?"

Espeo grinned at the girl and then looked in the mirror again. She pulled her hair into a high ponytail and turned her back to Lilla. "Zip me up?"

Lilla grumbled something under her breath but zipped the girl's suit up anyways. Of course Espeo would go all Catwoman on everyone for the exams. But hey, whatever floats her boat.

Xandra looked around Espeo and nodded at Lilla before looking in the mirror again and pulling her hair over her shoulders and playing with it mindlessly. "Did you get new armor?" The question was casual, but her eyes were still on herself and her hair.

Lilla blinked, almost shocked that the girl had noticed. "Uh, actually yeah. I fixed up a few pieces of the old top and got some new stuff." The blonde turned towards the mirror to look herself over one last time. She'd polished her swords and armor and couldn't help but smile a bit. She then shot Xandra a look as the girl grinned in her direction. "Why?"

Xandra laughed and reached over to pat the girl on the shoulder that was bare. "Relax, I think it looks nice. This armor suits you better."

Lilla nodded and then looked at the other girl's outfit. It was nothing special, but it was definitely very Xandra. "You don't have any sort of exam outfit?"

Xandra grinned again and looked down at her studded, black platform boots. "Oh contraire, Lilla. With the help of my spirits, I was able to add elemental studs to these old platforms. Not only do they look much better now, but they increase my magic a bit." She smiled as Espeo cocked her head and knelt down to get a better look.

As the bright-eyed brunette poked the seemingly silver studs that were all stained different, faded, colors, she couldn't help but cock her head a bit more. "But, why would you need elemental magic increasers when you're a Nova Mage? Don't you use celestial energy for your magic?"

Lilla made a face and nodded as she thought over Espeo's words. The Protector made a valid point. "Does it increase your Supernova? But wait, you've got God Magic don't you?"

Xandra chuckled a bit and jumped up onto the counter top, sitting in between two sinks. "Elemental magic increases Supernova ability, yes, but it also helps to level out the different Spirit Charms that I have. You know what God Magic is, right? Weren't you guys taught what it is?"

Espeo blinked, dumbfounded, and looked over at Lilla. When she realized the girl seemed deep in thought, she turned back to Xandra, shaking her head. "In my Shifter classes we were taught about the different mages and how their magic is technically stronger than a Shifter with no magic ability, but we weren't taught specifics on mages and their specific magic forms." She looked over at Lilla again, "What about you, Taura? Anything?"

Lilla shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. "I wasn't taught anything in the classes I took, but I will admit that I'd been curious about Xandra's abilities as a mage when we were made into a team, so I did some of my own research in the library. I stumbled upon only one article about God Magic and that was all I could ever find on it. It was just a definition of the magic itself. I believe it was something along the lines of 'Only a Nova Mage can obtain this ability and it must be given to them by the sun and moon spirits. A Nova Mage with God Magic is granted the ability to use Spirit Charms to call upon the sun, moon, planets, and stars for assistance. It is an extremely hard magic to control and master', but I could be wrong."

Xandra shook her head, "No, that's right." She smiled at the gladiator and chuckled again. "I'm surprised you were that curious and that you even found anything with God Magic in it. It's a very secretive art, especially when it comes to using the stars and constellations. As a matter of fact, you two and Mia are the only ones who actually know what I am. The rest of the school thinks I'm just a simple shifter. There was one thing the article missed though."

Lilla raised a brow at that and eyed the girl, wanting to know what she had missed. Espeo seemed to mimic the look, but her head was cocked to the side like a confused puppy.

"God Magic can _only_ be obtained through the sun and moon spirits, like you said, but not all Nova Mages can handle it. At any given time, only 2 Nova Mages can have God Magic. Any more than two would set off a reaction that would be caused by the world being unbalanced." The girl with tiger-striped hair shivered, as if a chill had scurried up her spine, "Kinda' scary when you think about the responsibility that comes with it. Like, if I was attacked by someone and they were able to take my magic from me," she paused and looked down, "that would throw the world into some serious chaos."

Espeo shrugged, "I still don't understand what any of this has to do with asking your spirits to give you elemental increasers for your shoes."

Lilla snorted and pat Espeo on the head, "We don't really have the time to sit and interrogate her until she stops dancing around the answer. We'll just have to find out for ourselves, I guess." She looked over at Xandra and dipped her head a little. The tigress had an idea as to what the mage needed the increasers for, but she wasn't about to mention _that_ event right before the girl's final exam. It would throw her off and possibly cause things to end poorly, and Lilla wasn't about to be responsible for it.

Xandra dipped her head at Lilla after jumping off the counter and walking towards the door. "Don't we have some exams to take?"

Espeo laughed and stretched before slipping into her boots and walking towards the Mage. "Let's get this over with fast so we can get to lunch early, I hear they're doing chicken parm today!"

Lilla shook her head after fixing her head piece. "What is it with dogs and food?" She chuckled to herself and walked beside Xandra as they made their way to the entrance to the underground tunnel to the arena. Espeo, who was on the other side of Xandra, sneezed as the dust particles welcomed them into the tunnel.

"I hear the first part is a team evaluation. I wonder who we're up against," Lilla mumbled, causing both Espeo and Xandra to look at her.

Xandra hissed a bit, "If it's not Anna or Tania, I'll be disappointed."

A low growl rumbled from Espeo at the names.

The three had finally reached the end of the tunnel and pressed the communication device, letting the guards and administrators know they were there and waiting. After a few long moments, the platform began to lift itself.

Lilla maneuvered herself in between Xandra and Espeo, placing an arm over each of their shoulders. "Let's hope it's both of those bitches." She grinned and narrowed her eyes, and the three of them shared a laugh as the platform broke the surface and welcomed them to the roaring of students and those privileged enough to be invited to the annual exams.

This year's event was certainly going to be the best they'd witnessed.

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_Hope you didn't get too bored! Get fired up for the next chapter ;D_


	3. 3: Begin!

_Whoohoo, action! I haven't written any action sequences in a long while so I hope it's good enough to keep everyone entertained! Long chapter too and was a lot of fun to write! Most of my favorite characters from Aurora Academy all in one chapter, yay! Hope you guys like the beginning of the exams! Next chapter is already being written and is definitely going to be a bit of a shock to the girls and hopefully the readers too!_

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Chapter 3: Begin!

Xandra gestured with her head up towards the sky as the clouds seemed to darken. Lilla followed the girl's gaze and narrowed her eyes a little. The air smelt strange, not like it normally would when it was about to rain.

Espeo simply blinked, "The arena has a retractable roof?"

Xandra rolled her eyes and laughed a little. "I wonder if the headmistress is playing with the weather patterns. Taking the exams in the middle of an intense storm will be entertaining."

Lilla grinned and stepped off of the AstroTurf covered platform and onto the actual grass of the large battlefield. "So who are we up against?" She muttered as Xandra walked up beside her, Espeo to her right. When Espeo yawned, squeaking out some sort of puppy-like noise, the two brown eyed girls couldn't help but laugh. "Bored already, wolfgirl?"

Espeo scratched the back of her head and grinned at Lilla. "Just preparing for a n-"

"Welcome to this year's finals! As you all know, a few months ago the administration was handed over a long list of quests and jobs, so we started separating the students into specific teams and used these requests as assignments and tests. To start the excitement that will be the final exams, we've decided that our two strongest teams will go head to head in a teamwork assessment." The speaker up in the box paused, and then came back with a small gulp like they'd just downed a glass of water. "And as if that's not entertaining enough," a siren sounded after the speaker stopped again and the girls looked around the arena. In what would have been the end zones if it had been a football stadium, 4 flags shot up out of the ground. "Each team must capture all 4 of the other team's flags and bring them back to their own side successfully."

On the opposite side of the stadium, the other AstroTurf platform finally lifted the other team into the arena. Lilla looked over at Xandra and Espeo with a grin before narrowing her eyes in the direction of the other team. Her hands were resting on the hilts of her swords, and upon seeing black hair flying in the wind across the field, it became harder to keep them sheathed.

With a smirk, Tania lifted her hand and waved at the other team. She hopped down onto the grass, a hand on the ground and her other arm extended backwards, legs tucked under her and ready to pounce. Anabell, the brunette of the group, hopped down beside her, crossing her arms over her chest as she watched the other team with a disgusted glare. On the other side of Tania, a blonde named Anna shifted into a fighting stance, arms up and ready to protect herself while also narrowing her eyes. Standing behind Tania was the team's fourth and final member, Lily, who had golden orange hair and seemed a bit nervous.

Xandra shook her head and held her arms out in front of herself, crossing her hands as if she was about to summon something. "Lily? Isn't she just a timid cat?"

Espeo's face scrunched up a bit as she snarled at the other four girls, "Don't underestimate her, she's quick. I'll take her, I've sparred with her before so I know her strength."

Lilla nodded and unsheathed her swords with a grin, "Can I have Thorn and Poison?"

Xandra raised a brow and glanced at Lilla as her hands began to glow a gentle gold when she cracked her knuckles. "We'll help you when we're done with Anna and Lily. I just want Anna, I want to make her pay for what she did."

To the girls' knowledge, the school's administration had no idea of what Anna had done, but Xandra and her team sure did. They were down to three members because of that maniac. Just the thought of what the blonde had done to their teammate made all three of the girls' eyes seem to grow darker. Espeo's bright orbs seemed to shift to a dark, metallic green as the flashback of a screaming girl had momentarily played in her head.

The loud speaker screeched as it was flipped back on. "The flags are up and the teams are here. Judging by the roars of the crowd and the fact that there are no longer any seats available, we're not so sure any of these girls need introductions!" There was a long, eerie pause as the crowd suddenly fell silent. The tension between the teams could be felt even in the highest seats of the bleachers. Espeo had crouched a bit, ready to sprint forward as her eyes began to glow. Lilla's grip on her swords was making her fingers turn white. Xandra seemed calm, but the gold glow surrounding her hands and her narrowed, ferocious eyes stated otherwise. On the other side of the field, the four girls hadn't budged from their positions. Lily still seemed nervous, Tania was grinning, Anna's eyes were narrowed, and Anabell still had a look of disgust over her face. And then, a split second later, "BEGIN!" was screamed over the loud speaker.

"Lily, go!" Tania snarled and the girl behind her quickly narrowed her eyes and huffed. She lunged forward, jumping over the black haired girl and shifting into her tabby cat form midair. She sprinted forward in quick zigzags, seeming to disappear in between 'points' of the formation.

Espeo snarled, lunging forward with a wolf howl that called a bolt of lightning down from the heavens. The bolt struck her body and her entire form was shrouded in a pale yellow, almost white, light. Her ponytail whipped behind her as she sprinted forward, matching the cat's zigzagging with ease. It almost seemed too easy, and the feline seemed to realize this. She made a quick right, and the sharp turn caused Espeo to slip a bit. She snarled and snorted as the aura around her seemed to grow brighter. Her entire form suddenly began to grow and shift, the light forming the shape of a rather large canine around her body. The light faded away and in place of the human was the wolf the light had alluded to. A blur of brown fur, with purple markings on her head, paws, and down her back raced after the cat and pounced on top of it.

As soon as the cat bounded over Tania, the glow around Xandra's hands grew and burst forward, straight at Anna. The blonde barely avoided the line of energy and sent a glare at the scene girl who had clearly meant to pick a fight. "Alright then, let's go little girl," Anna muttered with a smirk and ran straight at Xandra, glancing at the wolf and cat as she made her way down the field. She'd nearly forgotten just how big the Protector's true form was, chuckling at the fact that such a large dog was chasing after her tabby friend.

Xandra took this small distraction as a way to shoot another burst of celestial energy towards the girl, running towards her as well. "Pay attention!" she hissed as Anna was stopped and pushed backwards, leaving skid marks in the dirt where grass had been ripped away from the pressure of the shot. She'd put her arms up to guard her face, and something seemed to be making a shield around the front of her body. The pitiful shield faded away after a few brief seconds and the enemy's arms were scratched and ripped by the blow that she'd tried to block.

Lilla had taken a few steps backwards, bringing herself closer to one of her own team's flags. Their enemies had the advantage, having one more member than they did, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from protecting all of the flags. She wanted Anabell and Tania to have to come to her, but she knew they'd try to pull a fast one on her and go for one of the flags.

Tania glanced up at Anabell, who nodded down at her. Immediately the two girls broke loose and sprinted towards Lilla. They knew she wouldn't underestimate them, but they'd use this to their advantage. As they neared the armored girl, Tania shifted into a sleek, black panther and snarled at the blonde, pouncing into the air, front legs ready to claw her to shreds.

Lilla grinned, keeping Anabell in her sight but focusing on the feline soaring towards her. Sure, she'd expected the other Hellcat to be the one to attack her, but the fact that the Shifter had attacked instead almost amused her. "Pathetic," the gladiator hissed and simply used the blunt side of her sword to bat the feline away effortlessly.

Tania easily landed on her paws and raced back towards Lilla, snarling. At the last minute, she shifted back to her human form and somersaulted to the left of the girl's swinging sword, getting around her and heading towards one of the flags. Anabell took the opening and quickly turned her body towards Lilla, standing between the girl and Tania.

Lilla growled and pointed a sword at the fellow Hellcat. "You challenging me, Poison?"

Anabell smirked, eyes beginning to glow a bright green as she clenched her fists. "Why play with the Shifters when you can be defeated by your own species?"

Lilla snarled, eyes beginning to glow purple. "You're nothing but trash, you won't win this fight."

Anabell simply smiled, fingernails now glowing as her outfit, the Aurora Academy battle training uniform, shifted a bit with the growing winds of the storm above them.

As Espeo continued to chase after the cat, occasionally batting at it and throwing it around, Anna had taken a moment to brush herself off and glare at Xandra. Her pupils narrowed, becoming snake-like as fire engulfed her hands. "So your celestial crap broke my shield of fire, good for you. Unfortunately, that was merely a weak effort on my part. Why would I waste my energy to block you when I'd rather pummel you into the ground?"

Xandra seemed to growl as the glow formed around her hands again. "You talk too much," she hissed and ran at the girl, jumping into the air and sending a thick bolt of humming, yellow energy at her. It had taken on the shape of a lightning bolt and was aimed directly at Anna's chest. "Lightning pulse!"

Anna's eyes went wide and she quickly threw up her hands again, fire spinning towards the bolt. "Fire swirl!" The two attacks raced towards each other and caused an explosion when they collided. Anna hadn't been fast enough though, as the explosion happened just in front of her, sending her backwards and landing on her backside.

The crowd went wild as the explosion sent heat waves through the entire building. The roaring and cheering only grew louder and louder, but none of the battling girls could hear the people in the stands, far too focused on taking each other down.

Xandra took a few steps towards the girl, jolts of electricity sparking around her arms as she glared down at the fire user.

Anna looked down at the girl's shoes and narrowed her eyes, taking note of the studs. Were they different colors? They were all very faded though, as if the Nova Mage was trying to hide the different colors. She raised a brow just as a ball of electricity seemed to be forming in the mage's hand. Where had that come from? Anna didn't care; she quickly kicked her legs at the girl's ankles, hoping to throw her balance off.

Xandra smirked as threw herself backwards, using her free hand to do a back handspring and land on her feet. As she landed she thrust the growing ball of lightning magic at the girl who was trying to stand back up. It threw her backwards and she rolled onto her stomach a good twenty feet away.

When Anna pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, her eyes looked like snake eyes again and she grinned. She opened her mouth and a line of fire shot at Xandra, distracting her from the sudden shifting of Anna's body. Xandra easily stepped to the side and avoided the blow without the need to drain any energy, but her foe was no longer in front of her.

In the air above Xandra was a winged Chimera. As a female Chimera, she looked a bit different from the creatures they'd been taught about in their classes. She had the golden, muscular body and head of a lion, serpentine wings instead of a tail with the head of a snake, and the back hooves, horns, and tail of a goat. "The lion with a snake for a tail and head of a goat on its back are generally what most male Chimeras looked like," Anna had commented one day during field training when the professor asked why her form was so different from the books.

Xandra's expression didn't change, as the sudden shift wasn't much of a shock to her. The last time she'd seen the form, however, things had ended badly, and she wasn't about to have that happen again. A powerful ball of a blue magic formed around her hands and the Chimera's head tilted to the side a bit, curious as to where the sudden difference in color had come from.

The Chimera's eyes widened and her pupils shrank to a thin, black line, a fearful thought clearly hitting her square in the face. She snarled and lunged towards Xandra with a great speed, front paws reaching out with claws unsheathed as a large ball of fire formed in her mouth.

Xandra was still trying to form a more powerful shot of water energy in her hands and in an effort to buy herself an extra moment, she took a few steps backwards. Unfortunately, the girl lost her footing just as the beam of fire was shot at her.

"Burst!" The Chimera screamed and Xandra was reamed into the ground by the energy. Steam formed around her as the water energy she'd been holding was quickly evaporated by the intense flames.

Xandra blinked her eyes open after feeling a heavy body pin her to the ground. She was a good 3 or 4 feet below the surface in a crater formed by her enemy's attack. There were large, golden lion's paws on her shoulders, and she felt like her bones were going to break any moment from the creature's full weight being pressed down on top of her. There was dust all around her, so she couldn't have been knocked out for more than a split second. She suddenly realized that the lion's huge head was beside her, teeth millimeters away from the side of her face and ear. "You remember what happened the last time I was this close to a mage, don't you?"

She could tell by the way the whiskers of the feline brushed against her face that Anna was grinning as she spoke. Xandra took in a deep, shaky breath. "Shit," she hissed, knowing there was no way she could push the creature off of her.

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_Anna, girl, you cray. What on earth could she be talking about? You'll find out in the next chapter, whee!_


	4. 4: Capture the Flag

_More action and, oh, what's this? Seems the exam is getting an interruption!_

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Chapter 4: Capture the Flag

While Xandra struggled in her battle against Anna, Espeo had managed to capture the feline in her jaws near the wall surrounding the battlefield. She shifted back to her human form, eyes glowing and teeth still shaped like sharp and large canine fangs. Lily had shifted back to her human form as well, beaten with bites and scratches all over her bare skin. Her battle uniform that matched the rest of her team's was torn and mangled.

Espeo slammed the girl backwards into the wall, hands on her shoulders pinning her in place. The girl squealed in pain and Espeo loosened her grip on the girl a bit. "Sorry," she muttered and let go of the girl, letting her fall to the ground. She was shaking and broken. Espeo had clearly won this battle, but the assessment was nowhere near over. Tania had managed to sneak past Lilla and grab the purple flag on the corner and Espeo narrowed her eyes and growled as the panther raced past her, flag in her mouth.

Espeo shifted to wolf form again, body glowing once more but the shift happening much faster this time as she ran after yet another feline. She barreled into the cat's side, hearing a crunch as they both tumbled over each other. Espeo shook her head and stood, shaking her body and snarling.

The panther circled around her, snarling and limping a tad but not letting it affect her, with the flag still hitched in her teeth. Her icy, blue eyes were locked on the purple-rimmed, aquamarine orbs of the Protector. "So, dog breath, think you can stop me?"

A low rumble formed in Espeo's throat as she took a quick step towards the panther in an effort to scare her. And it worked. The panther jumped backwards and stumbled a bit, hissing at the pain that was thrust into her side where it seemed like a rib had been broken. She dropped low to the ground, crouching as the large wolf took a few more steps towards her.

The canine's head was held high, ears forward and eager as her eyes glared down at the black cat. "This is why your team is second, you let fear cloud your head in the middle of a fight."

Tania grinned and narrowed her eyes before pouncing up at Espeo's exposed neck. She bit down as hard as she could as the wolf tried to shake her off. Using her exposed claws to catch a grip on the canine, she clawed her way onto the girl's back.

Espeo snarled and jumped, whimpering a bit but trying to throw the cat off quickly. She fell to the ground and rolled onto her back, hoping to crush the feline with her weight. As soon as she'd dropped to the ground, Tania let go and jumped off the wolf and sprinted towards the AstroTurf platform.

She dropped shifted to her human form and threw the flag onto the platform with a grin before holding her side. "Damn dog," she hissed to herself before looking over her shoulder. Anna had shifted into her true form, a Chimera, and was hovering above Xandra. Tania grinned and then looked towards Lily, who hadn't moved from where she was on the ground. The scrunched her nose in disgust and rolled her eyes, spitting at the ground. "Weakling, why was she put on our team?" Thorn was her nickname for a reason, and her attitude was only part of the reason. She wasn't exactly an ugly girl, but every rose had its thorns, right?

The cold eyes of the Shifter moved to where Lilla and Anabell were fighting. Tania wished she could say they were evenly matched, but Lilla's movements were effortless. She had experience and, although Anabell was putting up a good fight, the girl's sword were slashing at her and knocking her down easily. Unfortunately for Anabell, her anger had reached a fever pitch that worked against her rather than for her. If a Hellcat Demon's anger spikes much higher than normal, the Devil's Gene kicks in and the Hellcat's demon form takes over the host's body. Unfortunately for Tania's team, that had happened for Anabell, while Lilla was easily holding herself back from shifting. "Experience," Tania snorted and watched as the over grown, black lioness with swirling green and pink markings constantly kept trying to attack the gladiator.

"If only that damn demon could open her eyes," Tania grumbled as she leaned against the platform, still watching Anabell and Lilla as she held her side. She grunted a bit at the pain that was making its way through the side of her body but she didn't care, she was too focused on watching Lilla's movements. "You'd think Anabell's demon form would help her out, but no, that damn gene has to go all glow stick on the host and get in the way."

"Wh-what do you m-mean, Thorn?" A muffled, quiet voice came from beside the Shifter. Lily had managed to limp her way over to the platform and lean backwards against it before falling to the ground. Her breathing was slow, her body was bruised, and her eyes were only halfway open. Tania had to give the girl some credit, actually managing to get up and come back to home base was quite the feat considering her condition.

"The glow in a Hellcat's eyes causes them to go blind. Anabell's blindly fighting Lilla right now. In their demon forms, Hellcats rely on their other senses, mainly smell. It's like their able to see with their nose, in a way. Their senses increase incredibly when in their demon state. Unfortunately for Anabell, she's too angry to focus and that's why Lilla's winning."

Lily nodded and watched the fight as well, just as an explosion came from the left side of the arena. The heat and breeze flew past them and the two girls shot their heads in the direction of the explosion.

Lilla had managed to bring Anabell down to the ground and the girl's mental state forced her to shift back to her human form. Lilla put a foot on the girl's back to force her to stay down on the ground as she looked over towards the site of the explosion.

Espeo had taken advantage of the fact that Tania was too focused on everyone else and had easily made her way into enemy territory, snatched the white flag, and run back to her own AstroTurf platform. She'd actually managed to make two speedy trips, so their team officially had captured both the white and gold flags. She'd been on her way to snatch the purple flag when the explosion grabbed her attention and she shifted back to human form, taking a few steps towards the newly created, and rather large, crater in the arena. "So much for 'brand, spanking new.'"

"You remember what happened the last time I was this close to a mage, don't you?" the Chimera hissed with a grin as she pressed ever harder on Xandra's shoulders, causing the girl to groan in pain as she slammed her eyes shut. The squirming of the weak body beneath her made Anna's grin widen and her green, ophidian eyes narrow in excitement.

"Shit," the girl hissed from underneath of her and winced again at the pain in her shoulders as she spoke. Xandra could feel the creature's body temperature increase immensely and opened her eyes only to see a ball of fire forming inside of Anna's jaws, just above her face.

As the Chimera opened her mouth wide, allowing the flame to grow even more, a black hole of sorts seemed to form in the sky. Dark gray clouds with teal highlights and lightening began to encircle the hole and move swiftly around it. Lightning shot out from the inside of the hole and that loud ringing caused the Chimera's fire to simply vanish as she was caught stealing a glance up at the sky.

Xandra grinned. "Thank Zues," she whispered and kicked the creature off of her. She stood up, trembling a bit as she brushed herself off. The orange jewel and lightning bolts beside it on her necklace were humming and glowing. She blinked as the slight noise hit her ears and tried to look down at her choker, and even though she couldn't actually see the charms on her neck, she could tell that her entire necklace was now glowing. "The hell?"

Lilla and Espeo ran to Xandra's side, taking note of the glowing necklace while making sure she was okay.

"Took a heavy blow there, kid," Lilla muttered as she caught Xandra and Espeo staring up at her headpiece. "What?" She rolled her eyes and pulled the metal circlet of sorts, adorned with batwings, off her head, only to stare in shock. It was glowing too?

Espeo blinked and then looked at every part of herself that she could see, only to be disappointed. She frowned and looked at her teammates and grumbled. "Why don't I have anything that's glowing?"

Lilla and Xandra looked at each other and then back at the Protector. "Uh," Xandra muttered and blinked, "Actually, the purple bits of your hair are glowing."

The girls laughed and watched as Espeo strained herself to pull every piece of purple in front of her face. "Woah, that's pretty cool. Why can't it always glow?"

Lilla rolled her eyes, "Because you would look stupid."

Xandra opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by a rather loud thrash of lightning. Multiple bolts of the heavenly energy were striking all around the three girls, causing them to step as close as possible to each other and hold hands. "I don't know what's going on, but we're going to be fine," the tiger stripe-haired girl said loud enough for them to hear over the roars of electricity. Suddenly, a bright light overtook the arena and Xandra let go of Lilla's hand to shield her eyes.

* * *

_Dark grey and teal sky? Light sucking people up? Could it be? Either Mystogan is trolling or the magic energy on the battlefield was looking SUPER attractive in the eyes of the anima!_


	5. 5: Remembering a Loss

_While being engulfed in the lightning from the anima, the girls are knocked out and something Xandra's been avoiding for a while comes back to hit her square in the face. And then Lilla is actually hit square in the face. Oh boy...enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter 5: Remembering a Loss

"_Stupid reptile, you thought you could beat me?" The Chimera screeched as she threw something against a thick, concrete wall. The amount of force in the throw, along with the dragon girl she'd thrown, caused the last remaining piece of the building that had actually still been standing to crumble and fall all over the mangled body of what was now a tan girl with curly, brown hair. _

_ "MIA!" A pink and blonde haired girl screeched as she ran towards the rubble. She was stopped though, a male Chimera settling down on the ground in front of her and snarling, forcing her to back away. She was out of energy, as fighting off multiple other Chimeras had drained her of every ounce of Celestial energy she had. "Lilla!"_

_ The large, demon, commonly called the Tigerbull, shot it's head up from the Chimera she'd ripped out of the sky and slammed to the ground. Her glowing, amethyst eyes had blinded her, a downside of being a demon, but she could smell precisely where Xandra was. She could also smell the horrible stench of the Chimera that was keeping her from helping their teammate. She snarled heavily, a rumble that seemed to cause the ground to shake, and bounded to Xandra, again, making everything around them shake. _

_ The colorful haired girl backed out of the way and watched as the tiger-ram-bull hybrid finished the creature with ease. Suddenly everything around them was quiet. The enemy had dispersed and all that was left was an overgrown wolf, a demon that made the wolf like an ant, a frustrated mage who looked microscopic compared to the two beasts, buildings in ruins, and a motionless girl in a white Aurora Academy collared shirt and a plaid red skirt underneath broken bits of cement. _

_ "Mia!" Xandra screamed again and sprinted to the rubble, doing her best to move as much of the broken building as she could without hurting the girl even more. Lilla and Espeo had shifted back to their human forms and had exchanged worried looks before rushing to help their newer teammates. _

_ Espeo and Lilla had been paired up before in their training classes, as they were both classified as shifters at the academy but they knew next to nothing about the two mages. These two girls had been paired with them specifically for this mission, but the objective of it had been unclear. They'd simply been sent to a town to rid it of pests, seemed easy enough, right? Wrong. They were ambushed not even halfway to the town by the group of Chimeras. One of them had a recognizable scent, and when she'd shifted into her human form to taunt them, Espeo had pointed out that it was Anna, a fellow student at Aurora. _

_ But there was no time to dwell on the mission that they were no longer worried about carrying out. Right now, they needed to pull the Dragon Mage from the rubble and keep her alive until they could get home. When they finally had her free, every bit of her was beaten down to a pulp. Her clothes were ripped to shreds, undergarments even showing through in places, and she was bruised so badly that the girls were afraid to touch her. _

_ "Mia…" Espeo muttered and looked away, trying to hide the fact that she was tearing up at the sight of the broken girl that was to be her newest friend. _

_ The girl looked up from the dust of the debris around her and gave her three teammates a smile. A weak smile, but it was a smile and that pained Lilla more than she'd ever realize. "Girls," Mia whispered hoarsely, "I need to talk to Xandra."_

_ Lilla nodded and put a hand on Espeo's shoulder, and the other brunette stood. "We'll be around the corner if you need us, we've got to figure out what we're going to do about the damage to this old station."_

_ Xandra nodded without looking away from her closest friend. "Mia, I'm so sorry. If that stupid Chimera hadn't gotten in the way, if we'd never accepted this damn miss-"_

_ "Xandra, stop. It was inevitable; there was no way of predicting this would happen. We'll be fine." _

_ "Yeah, you're right. But how are we getting you back to campus?"_

_ "We're not."_

_ "Huh?!"_

_ "Xandra, take my hand."_

_ Xandra stared at her friend's bruised hand. She was afraid to touch it, but did as she was told. Suddenly, her entire body seemed to feel more energized and, for a brief moment, she was blind. "Mia, what are you doing?!" She let go of her friend's hand immediately and reached up to her face, touching her cheeks as her body temperature cooled down rather quickly. Her vision came back as her body warmed itself back up and she sat there, blinking and taking in everything around her. Was her vision suddenly better? And what's that strange stench? The tiniest pieces of concrete fell from the top of the wall and Xandra's head shot up. What was that?_

_ "Xandra, I need you to take the dragon charm off of your necklace."_

_ Xandra blinked, dumbfounded, and looked back down at her friend who seemed even weaker than before. "What?" She shrugged and grumbled to herself about her friend's condition and about how she shouldn't be so worried about her stupid charm necklace. She took the necklace off and then quickly took the dragon charm off of the necklace itself and put it in Mia's outstretched hand._

_ The charm began to glow as Mia chanted a few inaudible words and when she opened her hand again, the charm was different. Still a dragon, but one resembling a European dragon, like Mia's true form. "There, now I'll always be with you."_

_ "Don't talk like that," Xandra grumbled as she put the charm back on her necklace and held it._

_ "Our battle magic, the Dragon God magic we use when we combine our efforts? You don't need me for that anymore." Xandra only blinked. "You're an Elemental Nova Dragon Mage now. You're the strongest mage I know, and I know you'll make me and my dragon master proud. Love you, Xandra."_

_ Xandra's vision began to blur as tears welled up in her eyes. She squeaked an 'I love you too' back to her best friend as she closed her eyes for the last time. Mia had used the last bit of energy she'd had to transfer every ounce of the magic she'd ever had into Xandra. Mia was…gone. _

_ Xandra stood and put her necklace back on and looked down at her friend. "So, I guess I bury you now," she muttered as the tears stopped. As if answering her one last time, Mia's body began to glow with a pale yellow light. As her body faded, sparkles of every color you could think of, even black, began to drift upward into the heavens. Lilla and Espeo had come back around the corner as she sparkles began to fade out of view and they both looked down. They'd only known their new teammate for a few days, and she'd been such a sweet girl, to think that she was gone was…they couldn't comprehend it. _

_ Xandra looked over at them and smiled, reaching her hand up to her necklace and grabbing the dragon charm gently. "She's still with us."_

That was a flashback Xandra had been trying to avoid for what felt like years, when it had been only a few weeks or so.

As the light faded from their eyes, Espeo and Lilla were the first to come to. The three of them were on the ground, in the middle of what seemed to be a road. She rubbed her eyes as dust was still flying around them and coughed a little. She was sitting on her backside, legs stretched in front of her while Xandra was on top of her legs and on her back. Lilla was behind her on her hands and knees, pushing herself up from where she'd be laying on her stomach.

They hadn't even been wherever they were for more than 3 seconds when Espeo heard Lilla yelling at someone.

As soon as Lilla came to, she pushed herself off the ground, only to have someone's flame magic thrown in her face and pushing her backwards. Espeo had looked over her shoulder just in time to see the girl thrown into the fencing beside the road.

"The hell?!" Lilla yelled and stood up immediately, not bothering to brush the dust off of her armor. Her headpiece was back on her head already and her eyes were narrowed into a fierce glare. "What the hell did I do to you, flame brain?!"

The boy with spikey, salmon colored hair that she was yelling at blinked in confusion. His eyes then went wide as he took in the new group of girls who'd suddenly just appeared out of nowhere.

* * *

_I...feel bad for Natsu already...but who was that attack actually aimed at? They're on the road, are they on their way to a mission? Hmm, stay tuned!_


	6. 6: A Whole New World

_Sorry in advanced for any errors, I'll get any that are caught fixed as soon as they're found! I'm pretty drained from the past week and the exhaustion is finally catching up to me. However, that will not stop me from writing! Hope you enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

Chapter 6: A Whole New World

When Xandra finally came to, she found herself lying on her back beside a fence that lined a dirt road. She groaned a bit as she sat herself up slowly, only to find two men looking down at her in confusion. She blinked again, not recognizing them in the slightest other than the fact that the seemingly darker boy had similarly styled hair.

"Lilla, calm down! He said it was an accident!"

Xandra winced as Espeo's cry from somewhere behind her thundered into her ears. She threw her hands over her ears; the girl's hearing was suddenly much, much better. She glanced over her shoulder towards where the brunette was holding back the ridiculously angry blonde while a small group of strangers seemed dumbfounded. What had she missed out on, who were these 5 new people, and how long had she been out?

"I really didn't mean to hit you, I'm sorry!" The pink haired boy said, hands out in front of him, trying to reassure the angry, armored girl. "It's not my fault you guys popped up just as those two idiots got in my way!" He gestured towards the boys who were still staring at Xandra, pointing his finger at the 'two idiots'.

The black haired boy beside the fire user, who was suddenly without a shirt and in boxers, shook his head as he rubbed his temples. "Natsu, she's going to beat your ass."

"Shutup Gray!" Natsu growled at the half naked man and turned his attention back to the two girls in front of him. "And put your clothes on!"

Xandra blinked as she watched, still ridiculously confused. She looked back up at the two boys again and gave them a shy smile. "Er, hi," she muttered.

The blonde seemed immediately bored with her but the black haired boy smiled down and held out a hand, offering to help her up. "You alright?" he asked, voice just as quiet as her own had been. A small creature poked out from behind the boy as he helped Xandra up. Was that a green cat in a pink frog costume? "I like your hair," he muttered, noticing that the way her hair fell was the same as his own, just longer and colored like the striped body of a tiger.

Xandra pretended like she hadn't seen the creature, assuming she was seeing things and then smiled back as he complimented her. "I like yours too," she said with a shy chuckle. She looked around, not recognizing her surroundings in the slightest. "Wh-where am I?" she asked, voice beginning to tremble a little. _Thank you, shyness, for kicking in simply because they're boys. So helpful, _she thought to herself with mental hiss as she took in a heavy gulp of air and looked down at her shoes.

The boy who'd helped her up watched her, lifting a brow at her nervousness. It was like she hadn't been around people for a while. He'd opened his mouth to say something to reassure her when the blonde beside him finally decided to speak.

"When did you join Sabertooth?" The boy questioned, leaning back against the fence with his arms crossed over his chest and a brow raised. The darker boy's eyes widened and his head quickly turned towards Xandra again, red orbs scanning her arms and legs for the mark of their guild. "You're in our guild, but I've never seen you before in my life."

"When did I what?" Xandra said in confusion and then followed his gaze down to where the left side of her tank top had ridden up, revealing a piece of a white tattoo of sorts just above her hip bone. Curious about the sudden appearance of a saber toothed tiger's snarling head on her body, she lifted her tank top up more and folded it over her chest like a tube top, revealing a nicely toned stomach and another tattoo directly across from the tiger. She didn't know what shape to call it, but it was dark red and looked like half of some sort of heart. "Where did these come from?"

The black haired boy's face turned red as the girl lifted her shirt nearly all the way off and he quickly found himself looking down at his armored boots in an effort to keep his eyes off her.

The boy beside him chuckled and stepped towards the curious girl, leaning towards the marks a bit and holding his hand out like he was about to touch them. "Do you mind?" he asked with a smirk.

Xandra glared at him, "Why do you want to touch me?"

This caused both Lilla and Espeo to end whatever conversation they'd been having with the other people and turn towards Xandra. "Why are you taking off your shirt?" Espeo asked, cocking her head to the side.

Lilla smirked and opened her mouth to answer for Xandra, but the brunette beside her smacked her on the back of the head before she got the chance. "Ow!" she hissed rather loudly.

Xandra winced again at the yell, causing the boy in front of her to raise his brow again. "You alright there, Tigress?"

Xandra nodded and then poked his hand, pointing one of his fingers for him and tracing the outline of the white tattoo. After running his hand across the tattoo a few times on his own, he pulled away and tilted his head like Espeo always did. "Why'd you want to touch it?" Xandra asked, momentarily looking past him towards his darker friend who was looking at her stomach. Her eyes narrowed a bit, curiosity tiptoeing into her brain about the quieter, darker boy who didn't seem to realize he was still blushing. Her attention snapped back to the blonde when he poked her in the stomach, causing her to jump a bit with a small squeak.

"The name's Sting, by the way," the boy stated instead of answering her question. He smirked at the nearly topless girl's squealing and then caught himself looking at her stomach absentmindedly. The other boy smiled a bit at the cute noise that had erupted from the girl when she'd been poked.

Xandra rolled her eyes and unfolded her top, letting it fall back down on its own, the bottom of each tattoo still visible because of her midriff. "Great. Now why did you feel the marking?" She was quickly growing impatient and Lilla's heavy glare at Sting wasn't helping his cause much.

"He was checking to see if it was fake," the darker boy spoke. His tone and expression were suddenly emotionless as he stepped up beside the blonde. "I'm Rogue. We're both from the guild Sabertooth and only members of the guild can have that mark on their body."

By this time, and with the commenting of the blonde girl, Lucy, and salmon haired boy, Natsu, Espeo and Lilla had realized they both shared the same two markings on their own bodies. Lilla had a Sabertooth mark in dark purple on her left shoulder while Espeo had a dark blue one on the right side of her chest. The other marking was apparently the mark of the Fairy Tail guild, the stripper, Gray, had told them. Lilla's was light purple and on her left hip like Xandra's tiger while Espeo's was the same aquamarine color of her eyes and on the left side of her chest.

After a few more minutes of questioning where the markings had suddenly come from, the group of magic users had merged together near the fence, whatever fight had been going on long forgotten.

Lilla grumbled, "Why would the markings of your magic guilds suddenly just appear on our bodies? And why would we suddenly just end up in your end of the world?"

Xandra hopped up on the fence with ease and looked from Sting and Rogue to Natsu, Lucy, and Gray, and then to her own teammates. "I don't think we're in another part of the world, I think we're in a different world entirely."

"You don't think you're from our world? Like, you're from another dimension maybe?" Lucy chimed in, furrowing her brow as she pondered her own words.

Espeo shrugged and looked over at Xandra and then to Lucy. "Possibly, I mean. We would have heard about guilds and you guys would have heard of Aurora Academy if we were from the same world, right? Both places are very famous and anyone from anywhere knows of them .Well, anyone in our world knows of the Academy, while everyone here knows about guilds. Right?"

The flying, blue cat hovering above Natsu suddenly lit up. "Aye! Maybe they traveled through the anima!"

Natsu, Gray, and Lucy all shot shocked looks up at the feline. Natsu turned his gaze towards the girl he had yet to talk to, Xandra. "What were you guys doing before waking up here?"

"Taking our final exams, battling the second strongest team at our school. We're from a high school for the Gifted. In other words, most all of the students have some sort of magic power, just like all of the people that work in your guilds have magic," Lilla grumbled and leaned back against the fence beside Xandra, still throwing glares at Sting and Rogue.

"If there was a lot of magic power being used, maybe that somehow drew the anima's attention and summoned it," Gray muttered and looked over at his fellow Fairy Tail members. Lucy nodded in agreement with him, the statement sounding like it would make sense, as the cat squeaked another 'Aye!'

Rogue nodded as well, but before he could speak, Sting spoke up. "That doesn't explain the guild marks appearing on their bodies though." He narrowed his eyes in Xandra and Lilla's direction and then raised a brow as Espeo seemed to hide behind Lucy a bit. Rogue shook his head a little and leaned against the fence on the unoccupied side of Xandra with a heavy, almost annoyed, sigh.

Xandra sighed at the same time and looked up at the sky. Clear and bright blue as any perfect day's sky would be. She took a deep breath before closing her eyes. It felt like something was missing though, she seemed lighter and it wasn't just because she suddenly seemed to have more energy and better hearing. She reached up to grab the dragon charm on her necklace, only to find that her necklace was gone.


	7. 7: Whats Lost

_I think I caught all of my errors in this one. Had another sleepless night, for multiple reasons, so sorry in advanced you guys! Hope you enjoy this next part of the story (:_

* * *

Chapter 7: What's Lost…

Happy blinked and flew over to where Xandra was searching the ground frantically for her necklace. "Are you okay, lady?"

"No! Without that necklace I can't communicate with my spirits! All of my charms are on it! And Mia's dragon is on it too!" The girl fell to her knees and sighed heavily, shutting her eyes tight as her chin fell to her chest in defeat. Happy landed on the ground in front of her and looked up at her as his wings disappeared.

When he noticed she was trying to hold back tears, he placed a paw on her knee gently. "Don't worry, tiger lady, we'll find your necklace.

Lucy raised a brow and looked down at her keys as the girl mentioned summoning spirits. "When you say spirits, what do you mean?" She asked without a thought, walking towards the girl and now holding her set of Gate Keys.

Lilla watched the blonde with a raised brow, looking up from where she'd been looking across the road with Espeo and the Fairy Tail boys. Sting had remained where he stood by the fence, not exactly interested in whatever had been going on with Xandra. Rogue, on the other hand, had followed Xandra to where she'd been looking and jumped a little when she'd suddenly fallen to her knees.

Happy looked up at the dark boy and grinned as he knelt beside her. The cat backed up a few steps and continued his search for the black necklace that apparently had two chains with charms on them and two lightning bolts with an orange gem in the middle, with a dragon charm dangling from the gem. "It sounds so heavy," he mumbled to himself as he kept his eyes peeled for the piece of important jewelry.

Xandra chuckled at the cat's muttering and smiled a little as she opened her eyes. A tear escaped her grip as she looked down. Although she appreciated everyone's help, well almost everyone, she knew it was useless. The necklace had probably been left behind in the arena, just like Lilla's swords. No, wait, that wasn't right. She looked over her shoulder at Lilla and realized the girl's swords were actually still sheathed and by her sides. "So much for that," she grumbled, hoping to see that she wasn't the only one missing accessories.

Rogue shifted a little, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder as she looked back at one of her teammates. He frowned a little at the girl's comment, and even more when he noticed the wet streak down her cheek. "So much for what?" he muttered quietly, resisting the strange temptation to wipe the wetness from her face.

Xandra looked at his hand and then at him. She hadn't noticed his red eyes until now, and couldn't help but blush at how close he was to her. She certainly hoped her emotions could handle this. She sighed a bit, finding it hard to look away from him, especially when his voice was so gentle even if he didn't seem to be showing much emotion. "I-I'd hoped I wasn't the o-only one to lose s-something," she mumbled, feeling a bit mean.

Rogue smiled at her stuttering and then looked over at Lilla. "Winged crown or swords?"

Xandra laughed quietly. "Swords."

Rogue nodded and squeezed her shoulder a bit, "For the fire dragon slayer's sake, I think losing her swords would have been a good thing."

Xandra furrowed her brow and blinked. "Dragon slayer? He kills dragons?"

Natsu looked up and laughed, shaking his head, dragon hearing picking up the girl's question. While he explained what a dragon slayer was, taking care not to mention that Sting and Rogue had actually slain their dragons for the girl's sake, Espeo had stopped Lucy and questioned her keys.

Lucy looked over at Xandra as Natsu and Rogue spoke of their magic and realized she'd only spoken her own question loud enough for herself to hear. She looked back at the brunette, who'd stepped in her path with a questioning narrow of her eyes. "These keys summon Celestial Spirits," she explained, holding up her keys, and Espeo's eyes went wide.

"You're a Nova Mage too?!" She squealed in delight, realizing Xandra might be able to use the girl's keys while they were here.

"Here we're called Celestial Wizards. We use gold and silver keys to summon Celestial Spirits by opening their gates. They fight for us, each spirit with their own strengths and weaknesses." Espeo only nodded, almost looking disappointed, which angered Lucy. "What?! Not good enough for you?"

Espeo laughed at the girl's sudden rage. She looked over at Gray, "Is she always this touchy?" Gray nodded and gave up on his search, along with Lilla, and the two walked to stand with Lucy and Espeo.

As soon as Gray was near her, Lucy punched him in the shoulder. The boy rolled his eyes but smiled at her. "It's true though," he said and then grabbed her hand as she tried to punch him again. A good idea on his part, considering that punch seemed to have much more momentum behind it. Within seconds, her hand was completely covered in ice and her arm fell to her side from the new weight. She rolled her eyes and grumbled something as she slammed her hand on the fence a few times, having trouble breaking the ice off but, eventually, succeeding.

"A Nova Mage uses celestial energy to attack, but they do the actual attacking themselves, no one does it for them." Espeo began explaining while the girl tried getting the ice off of her. "In order to be able to summon spirits, you have to be trusted with one of the most powerful magic's in our world."

Xandra had now learned about Dragon Slayer magic and, because of a bit of an awkward pause between herself and the pink and black haired boys that were glaring at each other, she was able to hear Espeo explaining what she was. She pushed herself off the ground, putting her hand on Rogue's shoulder gently to help herself up since he was still kneeling beside her. He chuckled a bit and stood up, looking at her and then Natsu again, silently, with intense, narrowed eyes.

"Only once you've obtained God Magic, can you summon a spirit to our world," Xandra said, dragging everyone's eyes to her. Even Sting was suddenly interested, turning to face her at the words 'God Magic'. With a name like that, it was most definitely going to intrigue the guild members. She looked around, and when Xandra realized all eyes were on her, she held her breath for a moment and looked down at her shoes.

Natsu grinned at her, "No need to be nervous around us, Xandra. We're not going to kill you or anything."

Lilla rolled her eyes and shoved the boy to the side, "That's real comforting to people who just met you. For all we know, the 5 of you use your magic to kill people."

Natsu laughed again and shook his head as Happy walked back over to him. The cat glanced up and looked from Lilla's glare to Natsu's smiling, oblivious, face. The cat shook his own head and sighed. "These two are going to be trouble."

Xandra smirked at the cat and then took a moment to look over at Rogue. It seemed like the boy was standing a bit closer to her than he had been a moment ago. He noticed the look and blushed a bit, clearing his throat before positioning himself against the fence, his back to Natsu and the others, face going expressionless but the blush giving him away. Xandra raised a brow at him and, possibly to amuse herself a bit, hopped up onto the fence beside him. She was facing Natsu and looked around, all eyes still on her. "Erm, well, most of the spirits will temporarily become a part of you, so with the help of their magic, you can attack with their abilities. The only spirits that come to fight alongside of you are the Sun, Moon, and Zodiacs."

Lucy's face lit up at the mention of the Zodiacs. She smiled and pulled off one of her keys, "Here! Take this and summon the spirit, maybe he can help you find your charms! It's Loke, Gate of th-"

Xandra smiled and took the key, recognizing the symbol immediately. "Leo, eh? Well alright then. Not sure what the 'Loke' thing is all about though."


	8. 8: Can Be Found

_Another longish chapter, enjoy!_

* * *

Chapter 8: …Can Be Found

"He was a member of Fairy Tail, hiding out as a human because he couldn't get back to the spirit world or something like that," Sting grumbled, wishing they could find the girl's necklace so he and Rogue could get on with what they needed to do and get away from the strange girls and the Fairy scum.

Xandra nodded and gave Sting a grateful smile. He smiled back and then rolled his eyes, as if he hadn't meant to smile at her. She chuckled a bit and then turned her body around, her back to everyone, before jumping off of the fence. She took a few steps forward as Rogue pushed himself up to stand up on his own again, watching her closely.

Xandra took a deep breath. She felt so strong, as if summoning the spirit would take minimal energy when, in reality, summoning a Zodiac should take an immense amount of power. She was strong enough to summon two spirits at once in their own world, but here? Here she felt like she could summon all of the Zodiacs at once with ease, and that almost scared her a bit. She couldn't help but wonder what she'd be able to do with her own dragon magic, which she had yet to mention.

She shook her head, realizing she was zoning out as she stared at the key in her hand. "Single magic, Summon! Sun Protector Leo!" Xandra spoke with a strong voice and held the key out in front of her, her words causing the key to glow as a form came to be in front of her.

"Lucy, my love! Strange way of summoning me, but that's no matter, it still worked. Please tell me you can explain why there is a lion cub following me around!" The orange haired man wearing glasses, a suit, and a red tie grumbled as he hugged Xandra. He took a deep breath, taking in the scents around him, and pulled away from the girl, hands holding her shoulders firmly. "You. While you're incredibly beautiful, you are not Lucy. I have no contract with you, why do you have my key?! How did you summon me?" He jumped backwards and the lion cub, made up of what seemed to be orange glitter, he'd spoken about grinned and tripped him, causing him to fall backwards onto the ground.

Xandra blinked and frowned at the pouting man on the ground. "Don't worry, you're not my Leo just like I'm not your summoning mage." Her voice was blunt and she was clearly disappointed. The lion cub bounded up to her and rubbed itself against her leg. She smiled at that and knelt down to the ground, "You, on the other hand, you're one of my spirits. I haven't seen you in a while, Minor."

The cub chuffed and shook itself out before gazing up at her. With a small, slightly pitiful, roar, a ball of golden energy formed in its mouth and shot up at Xandra's chest. The glow from the energy draped itself over her shoulders and spread over her entire body. When the glow began to fade away, so did the lion cub. With a smile and nod of her head, Xandra said goodbye and it roared again, disappearing. She thought the Loke fellow had disappeared too, but it turned out he'd stood himself up and walked off and was now talking to Lilla and Lucy. "Maybe he has a thing for blondes?" Xandra muttered to herself with a chuckle.

The darker boy that seemed to be the only one truly paying attention had jumped in concern when Xandra's spirit shot what looked like an attack at his own master, but when the magic wrapped around her in what seemed to be a gentle fashion, his body had relaxed a little. Now, Rogue met Xandra's sad eyes and smiled at her as best he could while a heavy blush spread over his cheeks. He could feel the burning sensation coming on, but he didn't want to be rude and look down at the ground, avoiding eye contact. "You look nice," he mumbled before blinking and giving in to looking away from her.

Xandra cocked her head to the side when she heard him. If her hearing hadn't become better, there was no way she would have been able to make out his words, but that didn't change her confusion. She looked down at herself and realized her outfit had been changed by the Leo Minor spirit. She blushed as she realized she was in a pair of very short black shorts and a top ensemble loosely similar to Lucy's. She was in a black bandeau top with red lace trimmings and had black sleeves that tied at the top with red ribbon and flared at towards her hands, white and red lace layered towards the ends. Feeling a bit shorter, she gazed down at her feet and noticed that black and red high tops with the same stud embellishments had replaced her platforms. She smiled a bit at that, happy to be short again as her true height was a little bit shorter than Rogue, rather than being an inch or so taller than him like she'd been in the platforms.

Sting and Gray caught themselves looking at Xandra as well and when Lucy noticed this she simply rolled her eyes. "I dress like that, it looks cute on her, doesn't it?"

Gray's attention snapped back to Lucy and he scratched the back of his head as Sting walked over to the fence and leaned over it, resting his elbows on the top rail and crossing his arms over each other. He looked the girl up and down before giving her quite the look. Unfortunately, the glint in his lovely, blue orbs was showing off the fact that he really was quite easy on the eyes and it was painfully obvious that he most definitely knew it. Rogue, who was utterly unimpressed by the sudden aura beside him, glanced over at his friend and narrowed his eyes with a scowl. "Pervert."

Xandra easily caught the word and blushed a little, turning her back to everyone again and covering her stomach quickly. Her shyness was becoming worse than Espeo, but Lucy's snort as she turned didn't exactly help the situation.

"What's your problem?" Lilla hissed at the wizard and rested a hand on the hilt of one of her swords.

"What? She has a good body so I don't understand what the problem with the outfit her spirit gave her is."

Loke stood beside Lucy, using her shoulder as an arm rest. "She does look rather nice, although maybe if she put her hair up you could see her pretty necklace better." Lucy shot him a look and he blinked. "What? Even you said she's cute." The girl rolled her eyes and huffed, causing the spirit to smirk. He gave Lucy a quick peck on the cheek before his figured faded away, returning to the spirit world while he left the girl standing there with a heavy blush.

Rogue looked over at Xandra again and gathered all of his mental strength together before walking over to her. He tapped her on the shoulder lightly but avoided eye contact with her when she looked over at him. "S-sorry about Sting," he muttered and then laughed at his own stuttering.

Xandra laughed as well and poked him in the chest as she whispered, "I think I'm rubbing off on you already."

The boy's face flushed a gentle crimson and he couldn't help but smirk. Instead of commenting on the 'already', he decided it'd be best to change the subject. "I-is that the necklace?"

Xandra immediately felt her neck and she let out a deep sigh of relief as she felt the chains, charms, two lightning bolts, and gem under her fingers. The dragon charm that usually hung from the gem wasn't there though, and her smile faded as the happiness in her eyes disappeared almost immediately. Her eyelashes fluttered a bit, as if she was about to cry, and she looked down at the grass to try and hide her sudden shift in emotion. Rogue noticed and frowned, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "The most important charm is missing," she muttered, voice trembling lightly.

Sting had walked over towards them and took the opportunity to pull her into a tender embrace. Xandra gasped and her entire body stiffened in shock. "We'll find it, don't worry," he whispered gently, but then looked at Rogue over her shoulder and grinned.

Rogue glared at Sting, not entertained in the slightest. What was the blonde getting at, stooping to the level of stealing hugs away from his own best friend. It's not like _he_ wanted to be the one to hug the girl, but, wait, why did Sting just randomly hug her anyways?

Espeo and Lilla exchanged looks as Natsu burst out with laughter. Lilla growled at him and shoved him to the ground, "What's so funny?"

The pink haired boy looked up at her, blinking more times than necessary. "Jeeze, _Erza_," he muttered as she stepped over him and leaned down, pointing a finger at him. "There's nothing funny about the weirdest one out of all of you hugging my teammate. And what's an 'Erza?'"

Natsu pressed his lips together tightly, as if trying to hold back a sudden outburst of laughs, which only pissed Lilla off even more. Deciding to ignore his horrible attempt at not laughing, the gladiator sat on the boy's stomach. He grunted and immediately began squirming and kicking as he tried to push her off.

Espeo shook her head and rolled her eyes as Happy began to laugh. Gray and Lucy simply exchanged confused looks as Espeo's hand landed against her forehead. "You are literally 4 years old," she grumbled and Lilla grinned up at her. Natsu had already given up on trying to push the girl off of him and finally let his laughter out, wide grin nearly matching Lilla's.

Rogue huffed and slammed his hands into the pockets of his pants. He felt something cold hit his right hand and he looked down as pulled the little metal piece out into the open. It was a dragon, but more importantly, it looked like it belonged on a charm necklace. His smile returned and he then looked up, watching Xandra try to pull out of Sting's embrace. The disgusted look on her face made him laugh, and the genuine laugh made her look at him.

"Whatchya' got there?" She asked, putting her hands on Sting's chest and trying to push him away with a bit more force. He only seemed amused by this and loosened his grip ever-so-slightly.

Rogue smiled at her, "Something that I believe belongs to you." He glanced at Sting and narrowed his eyes a bit.

Xandra's eyes went wide and she pushed Sting with much more strength now, nearly pushing the blonde onto the ground, and then ran to his friend. "Rogue!" Xandra gasped happily as she recognized the dragon charm immediately. "Can you put it on for me? It hooks to the bottom of the gem. Where'd you find it?!"

Rogue's smile hadn't faded and he hooked the charm back onto her necklace with ease as she leaned her head out of the way as best as she could. "It was, er, in my poc-" He was cut off by arms wrapped around his neck in a ridiculously tight embrace. She was a bit shorter than him, so he was bent a bit awkwardly over her, but he easily fixed that when he wrapped his arms around her bare waist and hugged her back. The heavy warmth radiating from her body seeped through his clothes and sent a tingle down his spine. Although it was a nice day out, the wind had made the air a little chilly, but her warmth made him feel like it was a hot, summer day. No wonder her spirit had given her so little clothes to wear.


	9. 9: You've Got a Family

_Woops, sorry for not getting it up sooner!_

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Chapter 9: You've Got a Family

Xandra squeezed Rogue a little more before letting go of him and pulling away. Rogue's grip around her took an extra moment to loosen, as he was giving Sting a satisfied smirk that earned him a glare from the blonde and laughs from the three girls out of focus behind the boy. When he realized Xandra's arms were drifting down his own as she pulled away, Rogue let go quickly, hands just barely resting on her smooth hips, and he looked down at her. Her hands had settled just above his wrists and she was looking up at him like he'd just won a war for her.

"Thank you, thank you so much," she muttered, and shockingly, she wasn't blushing. He'd been expecting to see her face and be able to mentally compare it to the color of a tomato.

Rogue grinned at her, the winning a war thought popping back up briefly as her tone hit his ears. "Anytime, Xandra. I'm glad I was able to make you happy." Ah, there was the blush he'd been expecting. Of course, it didn't help his case much, considering his cheeks seemed to be a permanent pinkish-red because of her.

"Er, so, where exactly did the charm come from?" Xandra questioned, pulling her hands away from him with a small jump. She hadn't realized she was holding on to his arms until she'd looked down while speaking, and her blush only deepened in embarrassment.

"It was in my pocket. I, uh, I'm not sure how it got there." He watched her closely, raising a brow a bit at her jumping as his own arms fell back to his sides.

Xandra smirked at a thought and shook her head. "Minor must have put it there," she spoke with a laugh and reached her hand up to the necklace, holding the dragon charm gently.

"Why's that thing so important anyways?" Sting asked from behind her, the curiosity clear on his face but the tone in his voice a bit rude.

Xandra narrowed her brown eyes at him a bit before rolling them and shifting her weight to one side, a hand on her hip. "If you _really_ must know, my friend gave it to me when she died." Her voice was rather blunt for such a heavy statement.

Rogue blinked, not sure what to make of the words considering her own tone of voice. Sting, on the other hand, was staring at her with wide eyes, as if he actually felt bad. From behind the blonde, the group was also staring at Xandra. Lilla was still on Natsu, who was frowning along with Lucy and Gray.

The salmon haired boy spoke up as he finally was able to shove Lilla off of him. She grinned and stood, brushing herself off while he spoke. "May I ask why she gave you a dragon?"

Xandra walked over to the fence and climbed over it, now standing with the group of Fairy Tail mages along with her teammates. Rogue stood beside Sting after hopping over the fence and exchanging a glance with his blonde friend. The girl he seemed so ridiculously curious about sighed and looked down at the ground and then took a deep breath, shifting her eyes back to Natsu and the other Fairies.

"She was a dragon. Well, a Dragon Mage. They're what you guys call Dragon Slayers I guess. She was," her voice trailed off and she looked up at the sky, trying to find the right words before chuckling and shaking her head. "In the simplest of words, Mia was the strongest Dragon Mage in our world."

Espeo and Lilla looked at each other, realizing they were about to learn something that even they didn't know.

"She possessed a forgotten magic called Dragon Master magic. With that magic she co-"

"WHAT?!" Espeo's eyes were wide, and it was unclear as to whether it was fear or excitement shining in her purple-rimmed orbs. Everyone's attention snapped to the brunette, most likely in shock that she didn't seem to know something about someone who was apparently very dear to her own teammate.

Gray raised a brow at the girl and then glanced at Lilla, noticing a similar look in her eyes. "Looks like even your teammates don't know everything about you, eh?" He turned to Xandra, brow still raised. Lucy agreed with him with a grunt, but Natsu, Sting, and Rogue had remained silent. It was suddenly as if the ice mage and wizard didn't trust the girl.

Xandra had picked up on this. "Honestly, we've only been teammates for a short amount of time. They don't know much about me, but because of their reputations at our school, I know plenty about them."

Lilla shrugged and nodded, stretching her arms up over her head and clasping her hands together before resting them on the back of her head. She stood like she was leaning against some sort of invisible wall like the situation was nothing new. "She's quiet and keeps to herself, I like to make a mess of things, and Espeo's pretty strong. The three of us ran with different groups. She stayed out of our way and we paid no attention to her. Simple as that."

Happy and Natsu both frowned and shook their heads, "So even though you guys were all in the same place, you didn't care about each other? What kind of a family is that?" The boy's eyes had narrowed into a bit of a glare, making Espeo and Lilla blink in confusion. Xandra, on the other hand, was frowning and looking down at her shoes. Lilla opened her mouth to say something, but Espeo covered her mouth.

"You're right. And, sadly, Aurora prides itself on being a close family of magic users, when in reality the whole place is corrupt. I think the three of us can all agree when we say we've never felt at home there, while we've had our friends, we can't call them family. Well, we can't call all of them family. My group of friends and I are very close, and we know our bonds won't ever break, but I can't say the same for Lilla and Xandra's friends."

"I don't have any friends," Lilla spoke bluntly and shrugged, crossing her arms over her chest now and turning her nose to the sky dramatically and closing her eyes.

Natsu chuckled at her strange reaction. "But I'm sure you want friends. Everyone wants to feel welcome somewhere, having no friends can't feel very good and must be awfully lonely. I don't know what I'd do without Fairy Tail. They're my friends, my family, and they'd never leave me to be alone."

Lilla opened her eyes, head still turned up, and blinked before her lips straightened into a flat line of confused emotions. "I-I guess you've got a point there," she grumbled and looked over at him, arms still crossed.

He smiled at her and pointed to her hip, "You're part of that family now. I don't know how you guys got the marks, but you're all a part of the Fairy Tail family now."

Lilla looked down at the mark on her hip, forgetting about the Sabertooth mark on her shoulder completely. She looked up at Natsu again, with a smile, and nodded at him. "Another good point, flame brain."

The boy grinned a toothy grin at her as Gray and Lucy laughed. The celestial wizard glanced at Xandra though, who'd remained silent through all of this. She was still looking down at her shoes, and the wizard almost felt bad for her. From the looks of it, she'd lost the only friend she'd ever had, so surely this conversation was no fun for her to listen to.

Espeo cocked her head to the side and then looked down at her chest, looking from the Fairy Tail mark to the tiger. "What about the Sabertooth family?"

Sting shook his head, "Our guild is different, and not as weak as Fairy Tail." He didn't sound like he wanted to go into further detail, and the silence coming from the mage beside him caused an eerie tension within the group. "Now, as much as I would just love to keep this little meeting going, Rogue and I have things to do. Unfortunately, for you Fairies, we're going back to your guild with you to speak to your master on Jiemma's behalf."


	10. 10: Homecoming

Chapter 10: Homecoming

After a few minutes of arguing and trying to keep Sting and Natsu from a physical fight, the group began to make their way back to the town of Magnolia. Turns out they were in the outskirts of the city, but still had a good couple of hours of walking to do. Espeo and Lucy were hitting it off as they walked, discussing anything and everything and answering each other's questions happily. Beside them were Natsu and Lilla, with Gray in between them for safety purposes as Happy flew overhead muttering something about wanting fish. Behind the group of Fairies were Sting and Rogue, with Xandra beside them but trailing a step or two behind.

Xandra felt a few pokes on her calf as she walked and looked down. Her emotionless face suddenly shifted to confusion. The item of her daydreaming from earlier was beside her, looking up at her timidly. "Fro is still curious about your friend."

Xandra blinked and raised a brow at the green cat. It was a green cat and it was in a frog suit. Although, after spending a bit of time around the blue, winged cat, this one wasn't much of a shock to her anymore. On her other side, a brownish-red cat in a blue, open vest was nodding its head. "I'm curious about this Mia, too."

"Where did the cats come from?" Xandra muttered to herself and laughed a little before stopping and picking up the green cat, cradling it in her arms. "Fro, is it?"

"Frosch," the other cat corrected as the frog cat nuzzled itself into Xandra's chest happily. "And I'm Lector. We're Sting and Rogue's friends."

Xandra smiled down at Lector and then looked at Frosch as she started walking again. She was decently far behind the group now, but she was okay with that. Being alone was perfectly fine by her, but then again, she really wasn't alone.

"Who was Mia?" Frosch asked gently, yawning a little.

As Xandra began describing Mia and telling them about how she'd met the girl at the academy she attended in her own world, Rogue and Sting couldn't help but smile at one another as they both glanced over their shoulders at the girl. If their Exceeds approved of her, she couldn't be all that bad. Rogue watched Frosch nuzzle herself into the girl's arm and smiled a bit more and Sting laughed gently as Lector questioned the girl on every little detail about Mia's appearance, asking about her hair color, eye color, and even asking if she wore a necklace as detailed as Xandra's.

Xandra laughed at the last question. "No, this is my thing. She really loved rings and metal bracelets though. She always had at least 2 rings on each hand and wore a lot of metal arm cuffs that matched her bracelets. I think the reason for it was because they were enhanced with different elements to help her magic, but I'll never know for sure. All of her things were moved into my dorm room at school, but I haven't found the time to go through them. It's weird, thinking I have to go through her things. I wonder why they wouldn't be sent off to her family, she always spoke so highly of them."

Lector's wings appeared on his back and he hopped up into the air beside Xandra and then settled on her shoulder. He eyed the two dragon slayers walking in front of them. Xandra cocked her head a bit and she and Frosch both followed his gaze. The two boys snapped their heads forward again and the two cats and the girl laughed. "They're listening. As dragons, they've got incredible hearing," Lector muttered.

Xandra heard the cat perfectly, not only because he was right by her ear, but also because of her own increased hearing. She chuckled a bit and nodded, mimicking the cat's whispering. "Thanks."

Lector nodded and Frosch spoke up now, also whispering. "Fro thinks that if she didn't want her family to have her things, that maybe her family had no use for them." Lector and Xandra both looked at her, and then Xandra gave a nod and a shrug. "What would dragons do with human things anyways?"

Xandra stopped and blinked, staring ahead blankly. She'd never thought about that before. Mia had been raised by dragons, multiple dragons, in order to perfect her magic and the Dragon Master magic she'd been granted. It made sense now. Frosch was right, dragons wouldn't have a use for Mia's clothes and elemental increasers. Hell, who knew if the administration would even be able to find the dragons that raised the girl. Why not make it easier on themselves and just give the girl's things to her best friend, who had no one else. Xandra was nodding at her thoughts, slowly taking them in. Lector poking her cheek brought her back to reality and she laughed.

"You okay there, tiger mage?" Xandra chuckled. All of these new nicknames seemed to revolve around her hair. What made them even more entertaining was that they were probably, secretly, pissing Lilla off since she was an actual tigress. Sure, Xandra had a tiger form too, but it was fake and she could only use it around people that didn't know what she was. The perk of being a Hidden in the school, but here, these people already knew part of her magic, so there was no need to be Hidden. At this point though, Xandra wasn't sure if Espeo and Lilla's magic had been legitimately revealed to their new acquaintances either, so maybe the three of them were Hidden in a way.

"Are you Fro's new friend?" It was like the green cat had heard one of the last words she'd been thinking, and Xandra nearly laughed at that. Instead, the girl smiled and nodded down at the cat, starting to walk again. They were even farther behind the group, but they were probably still within earshot of the dragon slayers. Natsu most likely would have been able to hear them too, but he was too caught up in telling Lilla, with the help of Gray, about all of the things Fairy Tail's done.

"Of course I'm your new friend, Frosch." Xandra smiled and looked over at Lector, "And you two are my new friends, right?"

Lector nodded, grinning. "So you summon spirits like a celestial mage?" Xandra nodded, looking forward again to make sure she knew where she was going. "Why don't you use keys?"

Xandra laughed a little, "In my world, I'm given charms, not keys. I guess that's just the way it goes."

"Are these all of the spirits you have?" He asked, prodding the charm-covered chains on her choker.

Xandra shook her head and reached into her back pocket, holding Frosch tightly with one arm so she wouldn't fall. She pulled out a large, metal ring that also had charms on it and handed it to Lector without looking at it. "Those are the rest of my charms, mainly my Zodiac charms. It's supposed to be a bracelet but the idea of the charms constantly moving around makes me feel like they'll fall off, so I usually keep it in my pocket, or wherever it'll actually fit."

Lector raised a brow and shook the ring of keys in the girl's face as she shifted Frosch a bit in her arms. "These are celestial wizard's keys. Aren't there only supposed to be one of each gold key?"

Xandra blinked, shocked at the discovery and words of the cat. "In my world there are 2 of each Zodiac charm, so maybe even though I'm in your world, I can still have my Zodiacs. That would probably explain why they transformed into keys too."

Lector nodded, "Yeah, that would make sense I guess."

Xandra and the exceeds continued talking after running to catch up with Sting, Rogue, and the others. They were entering the city now, and the group was getting looks here and there from the people they passed by. Many murmurs ran through the little crowds of people, mostly questioning why there were so many Sabertooth mages and why some of them also had Fairy Tail marks.

Sting and Rogue's auras had changed and they seemed incredibly tense, especially as the Fairy Tail guild came into view. Frosch had positioned herself on Xandra's head while Lector had hopped onto Sting's shoulder. Xandra was in between the boys, a step behind them again, but when she noticed the two of them tense up, she placed a hand on each of their shoulders.

Sting jumped a bit, not expecting the touch, while Rogue looked at her hand and then at her. She smiled and squeezed their shoulders a bit. "I don't know what the beef between Fairy Tail and Sabertooth is, nor do I care to be quite honest, but considering how powerful you two are, I wouldn't be so worried. I can sense the magic power coming from you guys, and since you're here on business, I don't think you guys have much to worry about."

Sting snorted a little, "You don't know Fairy Tail. These guys are crazy. And, speaking of magic power, you seem to have a ridiculous amount of it yourself. Rogue, remind me to question her about that later."

Rogue nodded and looked at Xandra's hand again before looking forward, stopping when Natsu threw the guild's doors open.

"We brought more family! Oh, and the Twin Dragon Slayers of Sabertooth apparently need to talk to the master."

There were lots of looks being shot at the group of 8 people, and 3 cats. Looks of surprise, hatred, and confusion were among the many different expressions draped over the people's faces. Many of these people seemed to have drinks in hand and the pretty, white haired girl behind the bar waved frantically at the group with a large smile plastered across her face.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail!"


	11. 11: New Members

_A bit tired from all of the stuff I've been doing the past couple of days, and I've got a test tomorrow I should definitely be studying for, but alas I've written all the way up to chapter 14 [along with a few other chapters to be used later on!]. So...yay! Hope you guys that are sticking with the story are enjoying it so far!_

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Chapter 11: New Members

"Hey! What are _they_ doing here?!" Growled a huge man as he turned in his seat at the bar and immediately recognized the Sabertooth members.

Sting sighed and rolled his eyes, "Trust me, we don't _want_ to be here."

Rogue's eyes widened a bit as they fell on the man who'd spoken. "Gajeel," he whispered. He hadn't seen the man in so long, but he quickly turned his gaze away. Instead of looking around at the other Fairies, Rogue turned his head over his shoulder as the girl with his exceed on her head closed the guild's doors and made her way to Lilla and Espeo's sides. He followed her with his eyes and looked the three girls over. Just in looks, it was clear how physically strong these girls were. Their arms, toned stomachs, legs, and overall athletic builds would have anyone on edge, especially given their ease on the eyes. Each girl was quite good looking in her own way; Lilla in an intimidating way, Xandra in a darker way, and Espeo, well, he hadn't really figured her out yet. The voice of Fairy Tail's master, Makarov, drew his attention from the group of out of place girls and back towards the guild's bar.

"I'm needed?" The rather short, elderly man grumbled before climbing onto a chair and then settling himself on top of the bar, arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were closed, but when they opened they fell on Sting and Rogue immediately and narrowed into a small glare. "Sabertooth. What is it?" He looked away from the boys, as if sensing the presence of the three newbies. He immediately jumped off of the bar and walked to them, smiling. "Ah, hello girls!" He grinned up at them and rested his hands on his hips.

Lilla raised a brow at him, crossing her arms over her chest, as Espeo looked over at Xandra, who shrugged as she looked over at her friend. Espeo then shrugged as well and smiled down at the man, "Hello!"

Master had looked the girls over, noticing the Fairy Tail guild marks just as Espeo spoke, but he'd also noticed the Sabertooth marks. "How interesting," he muttered and his voice trailed off a bit. "You three, come with me to my office." He then looked over at Sting and Rogue, narrowing his eyes again, "You two as well."

The boys nodded and gave a light 'yes sir' as they followed the tiny man through the guild and into his office. Espeo and Xandra sat down in the two chairs in the room, while Lilla positioned herself against the wall. Sting and Rogue walked up to the two chairs, standing behind them silently.

There was a deep, long moment of silence in the room as the master looked over each mage. Sting had opened his mouth to break the silence, but the man held up his hand to stop him. "Whatever Jiemma wants, it can wait. I think we've got something a bit more important on our hands here." His eyes fell on Lilla's figure in the back of the room. She seemed bored and he chuckled a bit. "Well, now we know what a child between Laxus and Erza would be like," he muttered to himself, laughing even harder at the thought. The only one to acknowledge the statement seemed to be Sting, as a smirk had formed on his face. Rogue stood emotionless, Lilla hadn't even seemed to have heard the comment, and Espeo and Xandra simply looked confused.

"Is it safe to say Jiemma didn't give them their marks? Because I know I didn't give them the Fairy Tail marks."

Rogue shook his head. "These girls appeared out of thin air when we encountered Natsu, Lucy, and Gray on the way here."

"We all came to the conclusion that it must have been the anima that brought them here," Sting added, but then shrugged.

The master nodded at him, his eyes looking between Espeo and Xandra, who both seemed nervous. "We're not going to hurt you or anything, girls. Relax. Your friend back there has."

"That would be Lilla for you," Xandra muttered and Espeo laughed. Even Lilla smirked at the comment, but didn't move otherwise.

"The magic power coming from each of you is incredible. What kinds of magic users are you?" Makarov stood from his desk and walked towards Lilla. He eyed her armor and poked her swords gently and the girl opened an eye and raised a brow down at him.

"Can I help you?" She grumbled and pushed herself off of the wall, placing her hands on her hips.

"Is this what you always wear?"

"No, I've got plenty of other outfits. Why?"

The master shrugged and grinned as he turned away, walking back towards the chairs that were currently occupied. He looked up at Sting and Rogue. "What, are you guarding the girls as they sit in my chairs?"

Rogue blinked and then looked down at Xandra before looking back at the Fairy Tail master and shaking his head.

The old man seemed pleased with how uncomfortable he'd made the boy, chuckling to himself before looking at Espeo. "Your magic aura reminds me of Laxus. Do you use lightning?"

Espeo blinked and looked over at him. "A-a little, yes, I guess." She cleared her throat a bit, her own shyness beginning to show for the first time. "In our world, I'm what we call a Protector. Here I guess I'd be something along with the lines of a lightning wolf shifter thing."

Makarov laughed as she tried to put herself in terms he'd understand. "So you transform into another creature? That would explain why your aura is also similar to the Strauss's. Your friend over there seems to have the same aura, but in a heavier way." He looked over at Lilla and then at Xandra. "Although, hmm, you seem to have it too. But you're also like Lucy, right? A Celestial Wizard?"

Xandra looked over at him and nodded with a bit more respect than seemed to be seen with the others. "Yes, sir. I'm a Nova Mage, very similar to Lucy but I can also attack physically with my spirits' help. But yes, I can also summon spirits."

The elderly man had also noticed something else about the aura the orange and black haired girl was giving off, something that he chose not to mention, curious as to if the girl even knew about it.

The master seemed pleased with what he'd been able to figure out. He walked back to his desk but this time hopped up onto it and sat with his legs crossed and arms over his chest, facing the 5 mages with a serious expression. "I don't know how Jiemma will react to these mages, but they have the Sabertooth mark and, given their auras, he'd be a fool not to accept them. However, I extend to the three of you the option to remain here and become Fairy Tail's newest members. You've got our mark and are therefore part of our guild no matter what. I will not force you to have the marks removed, as, technically, you were never given the option to receive them until now."

Espeo smiled at the man and Lilla looked up, a small smile on her lips as well. Xandra too had looked at him, but her face was expressionless as if she was deep in thought. Espeo had turned her head over her shoulder to have a look at Lilla, who's look seemed to give her the answer she'd hoped for.

Lilla walked over to the chairs, standing beside Xandra's and looking at Espeo again with a smile. The two girls looked at Xandra at the same time, but she didn't return a gaze to either of them. Instead, her eyes were aimed down at her hands as they rested in her lap. Frosch was no longer on her head, Espeo had noticed, and the other cat wasn't around her either.

Lilla looked up at the master again and nodded. "I will remain a Fairy Tail mage then. In the short amount of time I've spent with your Natsu, Lucy, and Gray, they've made this guild appeal to me and I'd like to learn more about it and more about the other mages I've heard about."

Espeo nodded along with Lilla's words. "I would like to stay as well. Lucy and I spoke the entire trip here and I've heard so many things and I'd love to be a part of all of the adventures you guys seem to get caught up in!"

"Wolfgirl, you'd be lost if I wasn't around anyways."

"Shutup, Lilla. That's not true."

Makarov sighed at Espeo's earlier statement while Lilla spoke to her, but then found himself laughing uncontrollably at his own thoughts. "Of course, you'd like to be a part of the destruction we cause, but who wouldn't want to be!"


	12. 12: Accepted

_I love this chapter. Just saying. Also, I got to introduce one of my favorite characters, so that may or may not be a part of it :D_

* * *

Chapter 12: Accepted

"Why didn't you stay with your friends?" Rogue asked Xandra without taking his eyes off of the road ahead of them. The girl was walking in between himself and Sting, with their Exceeds each hovering above her. He didn't get a response, which caused him to look over at her, only to find her staring ahead of them, also a bit expressionless. He raised a brow and caught Sting giving him a small shrug. Why did she want to stay with them and go to Sabertooth while the only two people she knew in this world were to remain in a guild far away from their own? But more importantly, how was their own master going to feel about this girl?

Makarov, Lilla, and Espeo stood in the doorway of the Fairy Tail guild, watching as the 5 figures slowly disappear into the distance. Lilla's eyes were narrowed and her arms were crossed over her chest, "Master, what is it?"

The tiny man's eyes were also narrowed and he sighed a bit before looking up at the girl. "I'm just worried for my child, is all."

Espeo cocked her head as Lilla looked down at him. "Your child?" She questioned, cocking her head a bit as well.

"Everyone in Fairy Tail, you're all my children."

"But she chose Sabertooth over Fairy Tail," Gray muttered as he came up beside Makarov.

Natsu laughed a little as he walked up beside Lilla and used her shoulder as an armrest. "But she still has the Fairy Tail mark and can come whenever she pleases, right? She's a part of the family too even if she doesn't recognize it."

Lilla looked over at the pink haired boy and smiled a little. It was short lived though, and Natsu was quickly thrown onto the ground. "I'm not your arm rest, pinkie." She turned and walked back into the guild, shaking her head.

"So she's got a bit of Gray in her too, eh?"

The rest of the guild burst into laughter as Lilla stopped and turned her head towards a few of them and raised a brow. Most of the laughter ceased and a few of the men cowered in their seats. "Jesus, she's as scary as Erza…"

Natsu scratched the back of his head and laughed as Espeo and Gray looked down at him. The brunette reached a hand down, offering to help him up, and Natsu took it gratefully. When he was standing on his own again, he brushed himself off and looked over at Lilla. "Hey! None of us know about you or Espeo's power, fight me!"

Lilla turned her head over her shoulder at him, grinning at him with narrowed eyes. "You wouldn't stand a chance, flame brain."

Espeo laughed and nodded and Gray looked over at her. No one had seemed to notice the master make his way toward Laxus and his little group of followers. The 5 seemed to be in some sort of deep conversation, and Laxus's eyes suddenly shifted to Espeo. His eyes didn't leave her, even as she walked towards Lucy and the two of them sat with a short, blue haired girl.

"Oh my GOSH! You're so CUTE!" Espeo squealed as she sat down and a black Exceed with green shorts, a sword tied to his back, and a scar beside his left eye jumped up onto the table in front of her. "Can I hug you?"

Pantherlily narrowed his eyes at her, clearly the Exceed was not pleased with being called 'cute'. "You may hug me, I guess, but I am not cute. I'm handsome."

Espeo laughed and resorted to patting him on the head instead as the blue haired girl and Lucy laughed. "I'm Espeo," the brunette said with a smile, introducing herself to the other girl and Lily.

"I'm Levy, it's nice to meet you! I'm glad you and Lilla decided to stay in our guild. Do you know why your friend didn't though?"

"She's probably got a thing for the shadow dragon. They look alike, after all," a heavy voice grumbled as he sat beside Levy. The blunette was tiny, but beside this man, who seemed to have iron bits embedded into his skin like dermal piercings, she looked like a figurine.

"Gajeel, that's mean." Levy muttered and shook her head. "Don't judge a book by its cover."

"Okay, bookworm," the man said with a small laugh, causing Pantherlily and Lucy to both roll their eyes. Espeo watched the two and smirked a little. Gajeel caught the smirk and narrowed his eyes at her, "What?"

Espeo narrowed her eyes back, as if challenging him. "Oh nothing, the tension is just adorable."

Levy blinked and blushed heavily, causing Lucy to laugh at her friend. Gajeel, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the hint at a challenge. "You know, Salamander made a good point. We don't know what you are yet, newbie."

Espeo stood up from the table and brushed her hands together, as if rubbing dirt off of them. "You seem pretty strong, should I take this as my first training lesson in Fiore magic?"

Gajeel grinned, standing as well. He towered over her, but she didn't seem shaken in the slightest. Height-wise, she was only a little taller than his 'bookworm', but that could potentially work to her advantage.

"Oi, at least take it outside so you don't rip the guild to shreds!" Someone called from the other side of the room. Gajeel and Espeo exchanged looks before Espeo gestured with her hands towards the door, bowing a bit.

"After you, sir."

Immediately the entire guild jumped up and followed them outside. Last out the door were the master and his blonde grandson, who seemed to be built similarly to Gajeel, Laxus. "What do we think, Gramps?" he muttered as they made their way to the front of the crowd as Espeo and Gajeel sized each other up.

"I'm not going easy on you, runt!" Gajeel yelled with a grin.

Espeo laughed and shifted her body from side to side a bit before leaning forwards. "Good, I'd like to see what I can do here in this world. I feel much stronger than I did in my own world, I wonder what magic can do here!"

Gajeel smirked, "I'm not sure you'll get to play with your magic as much as you want to!"

Espeo laughed and a low growl rumbled in her throat as her eyes began to glow and her teeth became more pointed and wolf-like. "Bring it, metal head!"

Both mages were in good spirits, so it was obvious neither of them were actually going to try and kill each other, but even Lilla had her doubts as to how far Espeo would get against this man. She'd made her way to the master's side and watched the two curiously. They were starting with simple, physical moves like punches and kicks, and the fact that Espeo had been able to land a few kicks and dodge all of Gajeel's attacks made her smile. "So what exactly is he?" the blonde asked, not taking her eyes off of the fight.

Natsu, Lucy, and Gray had ended up in the area near Lilla and Lucy answered before the master or Laxus could. "He's a dragon slayer like Natsu and those two Sabertooth mages. He's an Iron Dragon Slayer." She glanced at Laxus and then at Lilla. "He's one too."

Lilla nodded, facial expression showing that she was decently impressed, but she'd been to focused to notice the glance at Laxus and the comment. "Stronger than flame brain?" She glanced at Natsu with a smirk and he glanced towards her as well with a glare.

"Not even in his dreams," the boy said, crossing his arms over his chest dramatically. He glanced at Lilla again, this time smirking. "I'm going to fight you next."

Lilla shook her head, laughing, and went back to focusing on the fight just as electricity began running up and down Espeo's arms. The blonde blinked, "Well that's new."

Espeo stopped dead in her tracks causing Gajeel to stop too when he noticed the confusion and shock in the girl's face. "Everything okay there, runt?" He asked, actually genuinely concerned.

Espeo blinked, holding up her arms as the glow faded from her eyes. "I-I'unno. This has never happened before."

"Well, you did say you felt a lot stronger here, maybe your magic has changed as well as increased to fit our world." Gajeel looked towards the master. "That's possible, isn't it?"

The master shrugged, "Hell if I know. Espeo, why don't you try using your new lightning magic?"

Espeo nodded and smiled at the master before narrowing her eyes at Gajeel and landing a punch before he could turn back around. The man went flying and, about a football field away, smacked into a tree, tumbling to the ground with a heavy grunt.

"Gajeel! I-I'm sorry! Are you okay?!" Espeo yelped and sprinted towards him. She knelt down beside him in a hurry and found that he was laughing.

"Well damn, runt! You sure can pack a punch! A Fairy Tail wizard sounds just about right in my book!"

Espeo grinned at him and stood back up, offering a hand to him to help him up, but her arm was still covered in lightning.

"Oi, not while you're still electrified, runt."

Espeo laughed and nodded, turning back to the guild and walking beside Gajeel, giving him tips on how to move his body a bit faster so maybe he could land a punch next time.

Laxus smirked as he listened to the girl and watched the man's expression as she told him how to fight. The master nudged his grandson's side. "Told you so."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever old man."

* * *

_Laxusssss. I love you._


	13. 13: The Road to the Sabers

Chapter 13: The Road to the Sabers

Xandra yawned as she sat up from her side of the bed. She looked over and noticed Sting sleeping heavily and laughed as a snore got caught in his nose and made a strange sound. She looked across the room and found Rogue laying on his back on the couch, staring at the ceiling. "Morning," she muttered to him with a smile.

"You slept with Sting?" Rogue said, still staring at the ceiling, hands behind his head and Frosch resting on his stomach.

Xandra chuckled and got out of the bed, walking towards the window and moving the curtain so she could sit on the windowsill and look outside. She'd felt the boy pick her up and put her on the bed during the night, but she was going to play along with his game to see what came out of it. "It's not like I wanted to, trust me. The floor…wasn't as comfortable as I thought it would be," she looked over at Rogue and smirked, "And sleeping on top of you would have made for an awkward wake up call."

Rogue glanced at the girl at the mention of sleeping with him and watched her for a moment. She seemed at peace, having already turned her head again to stare out at the world through the cloudy window of the old motel room. "I offered you the couch and since you weren't going to take it and he was already asleep, I wasn't just going to leave it empty."

Xandra looked over at the dark haired boy with a raised brow, but was smiling. "I'm glad you slept on the couch, Rogue. Relax."

The man blinked at her and then nodded before looking back up at the ceiling. "Sorry the trip is taking a while, the next train station is close and hopefully the tracks have been repaired by now. "

Xandra remained silent, still watching him. He'd stripped down to just his boxers at some point in the night, and considering it was quite early and he was wide awake, she assumed the couch was decently uncomfortable along with the amount of heat in the room. Because she still hadn't received a reaction from going along with his game, she muttered, "Must have done it without thinking," quietly and looked out the window again, taking the opportunity to hide her slight blush after realizing her eyes had been glued to how toned the boy's body was.

"Getting on the bed?" Rogue questioned, looking at her again as Frosch shifted a bit to get more comfortable.

Xandra turned to look at him again, this time standing up and walking to the couch as she spoke, "Yeah, I don't remember doing that." She picked up his legs and sat down in the corner, dropping his legs after she sat. Rogue let his calves rest on her thighs for a few moments before sitting up and pulling his legs in, towards him, and settling into a partial Indian-style position, with one leg hanging off the side of the couch, body still angled forwards towards the girl.

"That, er, was actually my doing, to be honest." He looked down and fiddled with his fingers a bit. "You looked uncomfortable and seemed to be having some sort of nightmare, so I picked you up and put you on the bed." Rogue looked back up at her and found her watching him with quite a bit of interest showing in her lovely, brown eyes. "As far away from him as I could," he added quickly. He then looked over at his partner, who was still sound asleep. "You were ridiculously warm though, and sweating a bit, so I didn't put the covers over you." He paused and looked down, "I'd wished I had a spare shirt and boxers to wake you up and make you put them on, that way you could have been in something a bit more comfortable to sleep in." He blinked and then blushed a little after realizing he'd said the last part out loud.

Xandra smiled at him and then looked at the green cat who'd tumbled gently into his lap when he'd sat up. "Thanks, that's sweet," she muttered and then chuckled at a thought, which she then repeated out loud to see what his reaction to it would be. "Hey, at least I wasn't wearing a skirt."

Rogue's blush deepened and he blinked, clearly trying to rid a thought from his mind. Xandra smirked and stood up, walking to Sting's side of the bed and pulling the boy onto the floor. "Get up, we should get going if we want to actually try and get to the guild this year."

Rogue watched the girl as she laughed and as Sting rubbed his head. "Wench," the blonde grumbled as he pushed himself up. The boys put their clothes back on as the girl went and checked out of the motel for them and they soon were on their way. Thankfully, the train station was open and the train they needed to catch was finally running. Unfortunately for dragon slayers, motion sickness was something that came along with their powerful form of magic.

As the boys settled into their seats, Xandra fetched everyone some water. When she came back, she handed the boys a couple pills and their bottles. "They might help with the motion sickness you guys mentioned. I just-I wanted to try and help…"

Sting looked up at the girl appreciatively as she sat beside Rogue and held his bottle for him as he threw the pills into his mouth. He took the bottle from her and used nearly half of it to get the pills down. Xandra smiled over at Sting as Rogue swallowed and couldn't help but be thankful that the boy hadn't realized they'd slept in the same bed. "How are your ankles? I remember you saying something about them the first night," Sting asked after downing the entire water bottle.

Xandra shrugged and leaned against the window, staring outside. "They're fine, thanks for asking. It's been what, three days since we left Fairy Tail?"

Rogue nodded, "Yeah."

"You guys are sure I can stay with you at your apartment while I'm here?" She looked over at Rogue, face smothered in sudden worry.

Sting laughed and Lector drifted to sleep beside him. "Don't be stupid, where else would you stay anyways? Besides, I'm an awful cook."

Xandra glared at him. "I still can't believe I was actually shocked when I realized you're one of _those._"

Sting blinked. "And I still don't understand what you mean by that."

"You're one of those kinda' guys that thinks a woman belongs in a certain place."

Sting blinked and shook his head quickly, "N-No! That's not what I mean! Damn, I didn't realize it even sounded that way. Actually, no, I did realize that." He laughed a little and scratched the back of his head, "Nah, I just mean you're probably a better cook than shadow man."

Frosch frowned at Sting and looked up at Rogue. "Fro likes Rogue's cooking!"

Xandra smiled as she leaned against the window again. "I'm sure he's a great cook," she muttered as the train began to push forward slowly. She watched the ground outside begin to blur and fade to darkness as she drifted to sleep, still smiling.

Sting smirked and looked over at Rogue after she'd fallen asleep rather quickly. "Looks like you better learn to not burn food pretty fast."

Rogue glared at him and within a few minutes of the train moving, their motion sickness began to kick in. Rogue mentally noted that the pills seemed to be working though, considering it wasn't nearly as bad as usual. Sting seemed to realize it too, nodding to himself as he picked Lector up and sprawled himself across the seat. He hugged the Exceed to his chest gently like a child with a teddy bear and ended up drifting to sleep peacefully, happily not wanting to throw up.

Rogue sat in silence as Frosch crawled into Xandra's lap and yawned. It seemed as though everyone wanted to sleep, so he figured he may as well try to get a few hours as well. He frowned as he realized he couldn't lay down like Sting could and he looked over at Xandra. The way the gentle light from outside the window caressed her face made her look at ease. She didn't look as dark as she usually did and the smile on her lips fit her quite nicely. The boy blushed at his strange thoughts as something touched his hand.

Xandra placed her hand on his and opened an eye, looking at him without moving too much. She was comfortable and didn't want to move, but she also didn't want to wake the frog cat that seemed comfortable too. "You can lean on me if you want," she whispered. She figured the boy wanted to sleep as well and considering there wasn't much space left on the seat, she figured it'd be no problem. "After all, my lap's taken."

Rogue chuckled a bit, looking at his Exceed and smiling. "She really likes you."

"I hope I don't do anything to disappoint her, she really seems to look up to you and Sting, so I figure she looks up to me like that too."

Rogue rubbed Frosch's head gently and then looked up at Xandra and opened his mouth to speak, but it seemed as though the girl had already gone back to sleep. He shifted a bit in the seat before cautiously leaning his head on her shoulder. At first, he didn't want to put his full weight against her, but soon sleep would overcome him and he wouldn't have a choice.

As soon as his breathing evened out and his heart stopped pounding so much, Xandra picked her head up and looked over at him. She smiled a bit before gently resting her head against his and going back to sleep, still holding on to his hand. "What are you doing?" she muttered to herself with a slight frown, but she didn't exactly seem to care about whatever other thoughts were going through her mind either.


	14. 14: Proof

_To the guild! :D_

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Chapter 14: Proof

As the train came to a stop, Xandra felt something shaking her hand gently. She opened her eyes and picked her head up off of Rogue's lap and looked over at the green cat that was smiling at her. "What is it Frosch?"

Frosch giggled at her sleepy voice, and maybe at the fact that they'd all somehow shifted into different positions while sleeping. "Fro thinks we're here!"

Xandra smiled and rubbed her eyes a little, laying her head back down and sighing contently. She hadn't realized it until now, but she wasn't leaning against the window anymore, and when she felt a hand settle onto her shoulder gently, her eyes went wide and she was suddenly much, much more awake. She sat up quickly, the hand on her shoulder pulling away, and she stared at Rogue wide eyed. "Sorry! I didn't mean to sleep on you!" She took a gulp of air, ready to hear the boy give her crap for sleeping on him.

But he didn't. Rogue laughed a bit and seemed pleased, something that seemed out of character for him. The girl beside him was blinking in confusion and he simply looked over at her with a smile. "In your simple words, relax."

A faint blush had spread over Xandra's cheeks and she laughed and looked away from him after he spoke. "R-Right." She looked across the way at the seat where Sting was still passed out. Lector was awake and sitting on the blonde's head, grinning at Rogue and Xandra. "What?" Xandra snapped with narrowed eyes.

Lector couldn't help but burst out laughing. "You don't scare me, we know you pretty well now, remember? Even if you are really quiet."

Sting shifted and woke up, most likely because of Lector's sudden outburst of laughter. "We there yet? Is the train even moving?"

"We've stopped, I believe we're at the station. They haven't allowed us to get off yet." Rogue muttered, furrowing his brows a bit when he realized they should have been let off by now.

Xandra noticed the shift in Rogue's mood and stood up, walking outside of the little booth. Rogue had jumped up and grabbed her wrist, making sure she couldn't walk all the way out. Xandra blinked and looked at him. "I'll be fine, what's up?"

The boy let go of her arm and frowned. "It just seems…odd. Like we shouldn't get involved if there actually is something wrong."

Sting looked over at Xandra, a bit shocked that she was so curious about whatever was going on. He watched as she opened her mouth to say something, but the speaker system cut her off.

"Sorry for the delay, we've arrived at the station. You may now exit the cars, don't forget all of your belongings!"

Rogue stood, Frosch on his head, and put a hand on Xandra's shoulder. "See, everything is fine." However, the narrowed eyes that met his didn't make him feel like he was speaking the truth.

Sting laughed a bit and grabbed the girl by the arms, forcing her to face him. "Don't be so paranoid, okay? Not everything in this world has to do with villainous people."

Xandra laughed a little and nodded, "You're right, I was just being paranoid. Sorry."

Sting smiled and let go of her, shaking his head. "Don't be sorry. Now, let's get you to the guild!"

After walking for another half an hour or so, the group reached a flag with the mark of the Sabertooth guild on it. Beside the flag was a path that led up a small, rocky hill and at the end was a group of buildings, the statue of a sabertoothed tiger on top of the largest of the group. Nervousness had begun to take over Xandra's emotions, but she refused to show it. She looked completely confident and strong as she walked with the Twin Dragon Slayers. When they opened the doors, the guild members inside barely even acknowledged their presence. The tense aura inside the main hall of the guild certainly wasn't helping Xandra's hidden emotions.

"You return to your guild with Fairy scum? Are you trying to disgrace the name of my guild again?" the booming voice of an elderly, yet huge, man came to them from the corner. With piercing eyes and a confident, black guild mark in the center of his forehead, Xandra easily pieced together that this was Jiemma, the guild master.

"She's from another world, transported here by the anima. She bears both the mark of Fairy Tail and Sabertooth and chose to come to Sabertooth, while her two friends chose Fairy Tail." Sting said, voice gentle but a hint of fear staining his face.

Xandra nodded, stepping a few steps in front of the dragon slayers. She held her head high and kept her eyes focused on the master, while the members of the guild slowly gathered around the returning members, the master, and the outsider.

"I did not give this girl the mark of my guild, she's no right to bear the mark. Take it off of her. Rogue, you do it."

Rogue's eyes widened a bit and his body seemed frozen, even though the master's reaction had been expected.

Xandra narrowed her eyes at the master and took a few steps towards him. "Do I not get a chance to prove my worth to you? For all you know, I could have the magic of the gods and could bring your guild a name you've never known!"

With a hiss and without magic, Jiemma smacked the girl, sending her across the guild and into the far wall, growling as she tumbled to the ground. "You do not talk to me that way, you disgusting Fairy! How dare you!"

Xandra stood up, brushing herself off as if causing a dent in the concrete wall had been nothing. "Don't make me angry, old man." The girl spat the words at him, approaching the guild master once more. The crowd of Sabertooth mages cleared a small pathway through them back to the center where Jiemma stood. He was silent, watching the girl closely as she dared to approach him again.

He spat at the ground at her feet, "You're stupid for facing me again, child of Makarov."

Xandra only smiled at him. "Fine, I see how it is." She put a foot back and her entire body began glowing. At first, the glow was a dark purple and more like a shadow, but it soon began fading in and out of all of the other colors of the spectrum, like her entire body had been enveloped in a transparent rainbow with streaks of blacks and whites flowing through it. This was something she'd never seen before. Sure, she'd gotten angry in fights and had gathered enough magic energy for a decent sized blow, but this had never happened in the past. She wasn't about to let that show through though, and while her confidence never swayed, neither did her stance or grin. Her firsts were clenched into tight fists and all along her body markings and what looked like scales began to appear.

The eyes of nearly every member of the guild were wide with either excitement or fear, it was hard to decipher between the two. Even Rogue and Sting's eyes were widened and they couldn't find the power to turn away from the girl's sudden outburst of what looked to be Dragon Force. The only member who didn't seem fazed by the girl was the guild master himself, but that was to be partially expected. What he did do, however, was grin and nod at her. "What's your name, dragon slayer?"

Xandra's own eyes widened a bit as he seemed to accept her. The powerful magic aura the girl had once possessed was nothing compared to the one she had now, even after the Dragon Force wore off. Her true magic had begun to surface, and the aura would only continue to grow as more and more of her ability was shown to the people of this world. "Xandra."

Jiemma nodded and picked her head up, placing a finger under her chin. The girl glared at him but he only smiled. "You do, indeed, have much potential and you will prove to be quite useful. Welcome to Sabertooth, Xandra the dragon slayer."

Xandra pulled her head out of his hands and nodded to him, brown orbs still narrowed into a feisty glare. "Thank you. I won't let you down, master." She then turned and walked out of the guild, confidence still emanating from every inch of her body.

Rogue and Sting quickly walked after her. "Do you even know where the apartment is?" Sting called quickly as Frosch and Lector took off in flight, catching up to her faster than the boys.

"Why didn't you say you were a dragon slayer too?! That was awesome! Xandra's the best!" Lector yelled, overflowing with excitement.

"Fro thinks so too!"

The girl stopped and looked up at the two Exceeds, grinning. This gave the boys time to catch up, and when they did, she was sure the questioning from Sting would start almost immediately.

"So _that's_ why that aura was around you. I mean sure, it would have made sense if you were only a Celestial Wiz-er- Nova Mage because of that other magic you spoke of, but I figured it was something more!" Sting seemed a bit too excited, while Rogue simply stood beside the blonde. His face was expressionless and he almost seemed to be displaying no emotion at all, but his curious eyes scanning Xandra and narrowing just a bit gave him away.

"I'm hungry. And a bit tired," Xandra muttered as her stomach grumbled in agreement.

Rogue nodded, "There's food at the apartment, let's go there now." Sting and Xandra nodded at him while the Exceeds began to lead the way home. Sting wouldn't stop talking the entire walk while Rogue kept glancing at Xandra, who seemed like a walking, silent ghost beside him. _She's probably never done that before_ he thought to himself and then smiled a bit, looking forward as they neared the apartment's entrance. He was proud of her for standing up to their master and for beginning to discover her true potential. Sting and himself had discussed it a bit the first day they'd met her while she was with the Exceeds, and now they were finally going to get to see why her aura was so intense and a bit strange.


	15. 15: Preparing for Tenrou

Sorry in advanced for typos! I think I got them all but I'll go over it again after I finish cleaning the house (:

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Chapter 15: Preparing for Tenrou

"Apparently the last time anyone was on the island, they got attacked by some dragon and disappeared for seven years. You don't think that's going to happen while we're there, do you?" Espeo muttered as she sat on the bed of the room she and Lilla were renting in Fairy Hills, the girls' dorms for the guild. She thought for a moment, a frown settling on her face as she watched as Lilla pack away a few things into a bag.

The blonde shook her head and looked over at her teammate. "No, I seriously doubt that would happen twice. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if we were attacked or something, but disappearing for seven years? Highly unlikely that it would happen again."

Espeo cocked her head a little as she watched Lilla zip up the tiny duffle bag. "Wait, what are you packing? Didn't your shifting-to-change-clothes-thing turn into requipping or whatever they call it?"

Lilla rolled her eyes and shook her head at the girl before throwing the bag at her. "These are your clothes and my toothbrush and little necessities that I can't requip to my person."

Espeo unzipped the bag and looked inside and then laughed nervously. "O-Oh, right. My bad. Thank you."

Makarov had pulled Espeo, Lilla, Laxus, and Erza into his office earlier in the morning and sat them down, telling them about the S Class exams coming up in half a year and how he was going to choose the two new girls to participate if they were still around and were up for it. The exams were, apparently, quite a big deal so he was sending the four of them to the guild's sacred island, Tenrou Island, to train.

"S Class? What is that, like a new ranking?" Lilla raised a brow and looked over at Erza as they left the office back to the main guild hall, hoping to get an answer from her instead of Laxus. The Lightning Dragon Slayer and her teammate had been scarce since he'd been forced into training Espeo after her little welcoming fight with Gajeel about a month ago. The dragon slayer had been dragging the wolf on mission after mission with his team of followers, the Thunder God Tribe.

The Tribe was made up of three rather interesting mages, along with Laxus and now Espeo. A brunette who was obsessed with being a 'true fairy' and, like Medusa, could turn people to stone by looking at them if she wasn't wearing her glasses went by the name Evergreen. To many guild members' surprise, Evergreen had been overjoyed at the fact that another girl had joined their team. A green haired man named Freed, who was skilled with using things called runes, hadn't seemed very happy about the new girl and rumors quickly began spreading through the guild that he was jealous of Espeo spending so much time with Laxus. This, of course, made Espeo quickly revert to her ridiculously quiet and shy self and unfortunately it's been a bit difficult to pull her back out of it. Finally, there was the man whose face Lilla had yet to see. The masked-man had his guild mark on his tongue and apparently was named Bickslow.

"The title of 'S Class' is the highest ranking a mage can receive in a guild," Erza said, looking over at Lilla and smiling. "Laxus and myself are S class, which is probably why Master had you two join our teams."

Lilla nodded, sending a smile to the red head before looking around the guild hall. "How long will we be gone?"

Laxus grunted and raised a brow at Lilla, wondering if someone had possibly mentioned the last time they'd been on the island. The girls had been in the guild for a little over a month now, surely it had been mentioned at some point, especially considering the blonde was with Natsu and his team.

Erza shot the man a look and he turned to Espeo, dragging her off towards Evergreen and Freed. The swordswoman then looked back at Lilla and smiled again, "Probably a couple months, not too long, but enough to get you guys up to par and perfectly eligible for the exams. You're strong, Lilla, about as strong as me and maybe stronger in areas, so we're going to use this time to fine tune things. I'll probably have you shift to your demon form so we can see what's become of the gene while in this world. Plus, it's probably not good for your health to hold the form in considering it's a big part of you, right?"

Lilla nodded, "You've got a good point there. What are we going to tell Natsu and the others? Master said not to tell th-"

"We're going to tell them. You're doing some heavy training, after all, and when we get back I'll drag the team on a S class request or two to give everyone a bit of a challenge. Gray and Natsu will appreciate it and we'll need some money when we get back so, why not, right?" The girl grinned and turned, making her way towards Gray and Lucy to have a drink with them before leaving.

Lilla leaned her back against the bar, looking around the guild and smiling to herself. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits today. Even Espeo seemed to be a bit more talkative today. The brunette was being handed a bag of clothes from Evergreen, who seemed ridiculously excited to be giving her the clothes. Espeo was blushing and Freed, standing behind Evergreen, looked like he was about to cry. Bickslow wrapped an arm around the man's shoulders and dragged him off somewhere while Laxus simply sat on the nearest table. He seemed bored, but was eyeing Evergreen with a slight glare.

The white haired woman behind the bar came up and tapped Lilla on the shoulder, dragging her attention back to herself. "Hey Lilla, good luck with training, I hope I get to face off with you during the exam!"

Lilla smiled and took the drink Mirajane was holding out to her. "Thanks Mira! I've yet to see your Satan Soul that everyone talks about, so I look forward to battling you one day!" Lilla took a sip and then smiled again. She wound up sitting down on a bar stool, chatting with Mira about this and that and gladly accepting tips on how to improve.

"Hey Mira?" Lilla asked as she watched the girl silently cleaning some glasses, a few minutes after their conversation had ceased.

"Yes, hun?" Mirajane looked up at Lilla with a concerned look.

"What was Evergreen handing Espeo? It's bugging me, the grin that had been on her face."

Mirajane laughed and put the glass and towel down, leaning closer to Lilla. "She went through Laxus' closet and made clothes to match his for her. Isn't that cute?!"

Lilla smirked and tried to hold in laughter, but it wasn't working very well. The two girls burst into laughter, causing Cana, the bar's favorite drinker, to scoot over and ask what was going on. When Lilla told her, the brunette burst into laughter as well and happily slammed two more drinks down.

A tap on Lilla's shoulder, after she'd sat down while joining Cana for another drink, pulled her attention away from the cheerful conversation. "Be safe, Lilla."

A very serious face with spikey, pink hair was watching her, hand still on her shoulder. Lilla smiled at Natsu and nodded. "I will, don't worry. And when I get back maybe you'll get that fight you've been begging for."

Natsu grinned and pulled the girl off the bar stool and into a tight hug. Lilla chuckled to herself and wrapped her arms around him loosely.

"Nothing's going to happen Natsu," Lilla said, pulling away and laughing a bit. She pat the boy on the cheek and walked by him, towards Erza and the others. Loke had passed through his gate on his own and was laughing about something with Gray. After standing with them for a few moments, Lilla's eyes shifted back to where Espeo was and she saw that she was kneeling on the ground and playing with minor. Evergreen, Bickslow, and Freed were all sitting down at the table beside her and Laxus was still on the table. The blonde man's eyes were glued to Espeo and he seemed content as he watched the girl get pushed over onto her back by the lion cub spirit.

Loke wrapped his arms around Lucy's waist, hugging the girl from behind as Lucy poked Lilla's cheek to bring her attention back to them. Lilla jumped at the touch and then laughed nervously, "Huh?"

"We just wanted to wish you luck, you're probably going to be crazy strong when you guys get back." Lucy smiled at her fellow blonde as she placed her hands on top of Loke's.

Lilla raised a brow and smirked, "Did you finally give in to lion-man?"

Loke smirked and then laughed as Lucy blushed. He smiled and looked back at Lilla. "We know you can control whatever the demon gene is that is in your blood, but be careful okay? Erza said she's going to be training you while you're in that form and that neither of you truly know what to expect. Be careful for us, alright?"

Natsu had walked up beside Lilla and placed a hand on her shoulder again. He smiled at her as she looked over at him and then at the rest of the people who were her new teammates. Gray, Lucy, Loke, Erza, Natsu, and Happy, who was on Gray's shoulder, were smiling at her and the fact that they all cared about her so deeply made her smile warmly back at all of them. "I promise I won't let anything happen to myself, Erza, Espeo, or Laxus. We're all going to be fine." She looked over at Natsu again, who nodded in approval and squeezed her shoulder a bit.

"You better fight me when you get back!" The entire group burst into laughter as Natsu gave his typical, toothy grin. Lilla shook her head at him and returned the grin, still laughing.


	16. 16: The Ice Beast

Chapter 16: The Ice Beast

With a heavy crunch, Xandra slammed into the frozen bank of ice and was immediately knocked unconscious. "You asshole!" Rogue hissed, Shadow Dragon Force taking over his form in a heavier way than usual. He attacked the ice beast as Frosch and Lector ran to Xandra's side, trying to wake her.

Sting sent a roar of the white dragon Rogue's way, giving the shadow dragon slayer an extreme amount of momentum as he attacked and shattered the beast they'd been dealing with for nearly an hour. They'd finally completed their reason for being so deep in the mountains, but Rogue no longer cared about the reward.

"Gather the shards," he yelled to Sting and sprinted to Xandra's side, skidding and falling to his knees beside her. He picked her head up gently and whispered her name before wrapping his cape around her and picking her up in her arms. She was completely out-cold and covered in scratches from the bits of ice that had broken and fallen around her. "You did so well," Rogue whispered, cradling her as close to his body as he could, Frosch and Lector running to help Sting.

Once they made it back to their camp outside of the village they'd been working for, Rogue set up the bed for Xandra and laid her on it gently, spreading his cape over her again as a blanket. Sting and Lector had gone off to give the shards to the villagers and collect the nice reward of 2.5 million jewels.

After a long while, Xandra's eyes fluttered and opened up just enough for her to see she was back at their base camp. "F-Frosch?" her voice wasn't any louder than a whisper, but the fact that she was finally awake made the two boys snap their heads towards the bed as the Exceeds jumped up to greet her.

"Fro is here," Frosch muttered and put a paw on the girl's cheek, tears welling up in her eyes.

"D-Don't cry, I'm okay," Xandra whispered, eyes only halfway open but a gentle smile resting on her lips. "Are you and Lector okay?"

Lector nodded as he walked up beside Frosch, "We're fine."

"Good. Wh-where's Sting?"

"Right here, just got back from the village," the blonde muttered, walking to the side of the bed and smiling down at Xandra. "You got a little beaten up, eh?"

The girl laughed a little and smiled at him. "You're okay, too? You took a few nice hits yourself." He nodded, giving her a warm smile. "Sting? T-tell Rogue that I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Sting turned his head over his shoulder and then looked around the large tent. Rogue was no longer inside, so he couldn't hear the girl's words for himself. The blonde frowned and looked back down at the beaten up girl. "Why are you apologizing?"

"I-I wasn't strong enough, I'm so sorry." Xandra shut her eyes and shifted onto her other side, turning her back to the cats and boy. Sting frowned and then chuckled to himself.

"You were stronger than anyone else who would've been with us," he muttered as he left the tent, Frosch and Lector following him. When they emerged from the tent, he found Rogue leaning against a nearby tree. The darker boy didn't look over at him, but instead opened his eyes and pulled his chin out of his chest.

"She seemed to want to speak to you alone, so I left."

"Rogue, she to-"

"I'm not interested." Rogue looked over at Sting, expressionless.

Sting sighed and spoke anyways, as Lector and Frosch crawled up on the picnic table and began eating the pile of fish Rogue had caught and laid out for them. "She told me to tell you she was sorry."

Rogue's face softened. "She…what?"

Sting shrugged, "She said to tell you that she was sorry for not being strong enough."

Rogue's jaw dropped ajar. "Is she crazy?" he muttered and shook his head, expression softening even more as a small smile appeared on his lips.

Sting looked up at the boy as he walked by, noticing the smile. "Rogue? What's your fascination with her? Ever since we met her a month ago, you've been different. You were immediately different when she popped up and today, when she was knocked out…I've never seen you so angry."

Rogue paused just before entering the tent and looked over at his friend. Frosch and Lector had turned their attention towards him as well. "I-I don't know. She feels different. Her intense magic power is intriguing but that's not all. Everything about her woke some part of me up, some part of me that I've never felt before."

Sting raised a brow at him, "You're cheesy."

Rogue smirked, "It's not like that. It's just, she makes me want to be stronger, she makes me want to have something to protect. Someone more than just Frosch, Lector, and you, I'd risk my life for all four of you. There's something about her that makes me feel like she needs us more than even she realizes, but we need her even more. I-I can't figure it out, but until I do, I refuse to let anything happen to her. And once I figure it out, I'll do my best to protect her if she's not protecting us." He chuckled a bit and shook his head, the small smile reappearing on his lips.

As the boy disappeared into the tent, Frosch threw a fish at Lector, pouting. Sting looked over at the cats and watched with a laugh as a few thoughts ran through his head, _So, actually, it _is_ like that. Haha, Rogue, you're an idiot._

"Told you I'd win the bet. He likes her." Lector said, hands on his hips with a triumphant grin.

Sting laughed again and walked over to the Exceeds, sitting with them and eating some food himself, listening to Frosch whine about how she lost but knew she would because of Xandra's pretty eyes.

Inside the tent, Rogue had pulled a chair up beside Xandra's bed. He watched her sleep, that small smile never disappearing from his lips. He rested a hand gently on her hair, moving a few strands out of her face. "I'll never understand why you always apologize even when you're stronger than anyone I've ever met. You just need to figure out how to use your new strength the right way," he whispered with a chuckle. With one hand still resting on the side of the girl's head, he laid his head on his other arm, using it as a pillow on the bed.

Xandra opened an eye and watched him for a few minutes as he drifted into a light sleep. She put a hand on top of the hand resting on her and smiled a bit before moving it to the boy's shirt. She grabbed him by the black fabric and pulled him forward a little.

The movement woke him, and he looked down at her hand, blushing as he noticed it gripping his shirt. He followed the arm with his eyes back to the figure on the bed and met her own brown orbs and gentle smile. She tugged on his shirt a little, pulling him towards the bed a bit more.

"If you're tired, you can lay down," she whispered and let go of him, shifting to the side to make room for him on the bed. Because of her shifting, his hand had drifted to her cheek, but he pulled it away to pull his boots off and crawl into the bed beside her. He laid down on his back, arms under his head as he stared at the ceiling. Xandra pulled his cape up and over him, letting him share the blanket before nuzzling herself into his side. "You're cold," she muttered and looked up at him with a frown.

"And you're always ridiculously warm," he said with a chuckle, not looking down at her, but even she could see his growing smile as he closed his eyes. When she placed her head and a hand on his chest, he looked down at her, a little shocked and face flushing red. Immediately her warmth began to spread over his chest as she rested there, partially on top of him, peacefully.

"I'll help then," she muttered to herself, listening to and enjoying the sound of his racing heartbeat.

They both drifted to sleep, Rogue wrapping an arm around the girl and holding her to his chest gently as they slept. Frosch had jumped onto the bed at some point and nuzzled herself into the space between the two dragons' heads. Sting and Lector watched from their own bed in the corner, both smiling.

"He needs that, even though he has us and Frosch. He always seems so alone," Sting muttered as Lector crawled into his lap.

"Isn't she the same way though?"

Sting laughed and nodded, laying down and hugging the Exceed gently. "Having her will give him more strength."

"You don't need one of those, you have me." Sting laughed at that as well and shook his head.

"Don't worry, in Rogue's words, 'I'm not interested'. Too much trouble, anyways." The boy and his cat drifted into sleep as well, just as Xandra's nightmares began to get the best of her.


	17. 17: Meanwhile at Saber Camp

Chapter 17: Meanwhile at Saber Camp

Rogue shot awake at the sudden jolt of the body beside him. He picked his head up and watched Xandra for a moment, watching her facial movements. It was like someone was repeatedly punching her in the gut and there was nothing she could do to protect herself. The boy immediately used the arm wrapped around her to pull her completely on top of him, wrapping both arms around her tightly and hugging her to him protectively. "Xandra? Xandra wake up."

Frosch had woken up as well and seemed a bit too worried. "Rogue, what's wrong with Xandra!" The little cat's paws were over her mouth and she seemed to be tearing up.

"I think she's just having a nightmare, but it looks pretty bad," Rogue muttered, holding the girl tight and leaning his head against hers. He closed his eyes and sighed a little as the girl's breath shifted heavily again, but at least the jolting of her body had stopped.

Xandra blinked her eyes open, suddenly finding herself gasping for breath. Rogue was holding her rather tightly, so she cleared her throat in an effort to make him realize she was awake.

Rogue loosened his grip around her and pulled his head away, staring at her, concern heavy in his red eyes. "Are you okay?"

Xandra blinked and nodded, turning her eyes away from him. "I-I'm okay," she choked out, voice groggy from the amount of sleep she still needed. Tears were forming in the corner of her eyes, and Rogue noticed almost immediately. Of course, the slight tremble in her voice had given them away as well.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he whispered, moving hair out of the girl's face.

She shook her head and put her head down on his chest, gripping his shirt in her fists tightly, still trying to hold the tears back.

"Rogue?"

Her voice had changed. It was more serious now, and this worried the boy immensely. He watched her for a moment before responding with a grunt.

"Would you ever kill a dragon?"

The boy's heart rate spiked, causing Xandra to push herself up and look at his face. Was her nightmare about him killing a dragon? He seemed horrified at her question and definitely didn't look like he wanted to answer. Xandra frowned, the tears beginning to form again. She got off the bed and walked outside the tent, holding her stomach like she wanted to throw up at whatever thoughts were racing through her mind.

Rogue looked at Frosch, who looked after the girl. "Fro thinks she needs to know." Rogue simply nodded in agreement before getting up quickly and walking after her.

"Xandra?" He called as he exited the tent. She was sitting at the edge of the pond they'd made their camp near. "Xandra I'm sorry." He could tell that his face had given her the answer she hadn't wanted.

"So you've killed at least one before," she muttered. Rogue sat beside her, hesitantly resting a hand on her back. She turned her head to the side, not wanting to look at him but not wanting to pull away from his touch either. "Why'd you do it? Why'd you kill the dragon?"

"To become a true Dragon Slayer," he muttered bluntly. He looked out over the pond, which looked as though it was glowing a gentle white from the light of the full moon. "It was the dragon that taught me the magic, and to become a real dragon slayer, one must slay a dragon. I think."

Xandra's eyes closed tightly, pressing her lips together as she rested her chin on her knees, hugging them to her chest. "You killed the creature that raised you? That's dirty, Rogue."

"I-I know." He paused, taking in the harshness of her words. "I-I'm sorry, Xandra." He didn't know what to say to the girl. Surely he'd had the right motives when doing it, but he'd never thought about it so deeply until he noticed the pain he was causing the girl. Was it really that big of a deal that he'd killed a dragon? Maybe things were viewed differently in her world.

"I-I'm a dragon too, are you going to slay me to keep your name as a dragon slayer?"

Rogue's eyes went wide and his head shot towards the girl. "What?! No! Why would I kill you, Xandra?!"

The girl seemed un-phased by the sudden shock in his voice, a hurt tone that she'd never heard from his mouth before. "With the magic I was granted from Mia, Dragon Master magic gives the bearer the ability to use the magic of all of the elements. And, like regular dragon mages, the bearer has a human-dragon hybrid form, but with the intensity of the master magic, the bearer is also granted the true form of a dragon. If I ever show that form, would a dragon slayer try and kill me since dragons are supposed to be extinct from this world?"

Rogue watched her, still in shock at the thought that she thought he'd kill her. She'd looked over at him, hurt spreading over her face as well. Rogue reached his hands out and cupped the girl's face in them, fingers laying against her cheeks softly. At first, she focused her eyes elsewhere and had even tried to close them in an effort to not have to look at him, but he was persistent and forced her gaze. "Xandra," he said sternly and watched as the girl swallowed a heavy breath and blinked. "I will never hurt you. I won't let anyone else hurt you. I know the term 'Dragon Slayer' sounds horrible and has clearly put a bad taste in your mouth, but know this. Yes, Sting and I have killed dragons. We've each only killed one, and I never plan on killing another unless it simply must be done." He paused, his hold on the girl's face loosening a bit. "Your words and actions, they've made me realize that killing a dragon, no, killing my own parent was clearly a bad thing, even if I thought my reasoning for it made it okay. I-I," he looked down, hands still holding the girl's face lightly, "I'm so sorry to have hurt you like this. I never meant to. I only want to protect you. From the moment you and your friends appeared in front of us…everything about me has changed because of you. I-I'm a different person. A-A better person, I think. Even Sting has mentioned it a few times."

Xandra's eyes were wide as he sat there in front of her, nearly spilling his heart out to her. She'd relaxed a bit as she listened to him and forced herself to resist the urge to place her hands on top of his. She was, after all, still upset with him. She watched as he opened his mouth to speak again, curious as to what else he could say to make her feel like a complete asshole for calling him out on killing the species that the two of them technically were.

"Xandra," Rogue began, voice a mere whisper. He shook his head a bit and looked down for a moment before his hold on her face tightened again. "Oh, fuck it," he grumbled and looked up, forcing his lips against hers.

"Eeep!" Xandra squeaked, not expecting the kiss in the slightest. Was he really kissing her? What was going on? How had the conversation led to this?! Questions seeped into her brain through every pore and strand of hair on her head, but that didn't matter. What did matter was the fact that, without thinking, her lips had relaxed against his and her arms had somehow wrapped themselves around the boy's back and her hands had slid up behind the boy's shoulders, pulling him even more into the kiss.

Rogue's lips curled into a smile as she kissed him back, every ounce of worry fading away in an instant. He'd done it, he'd worked up the courage to finally make her his. Well, hopefully. Testing the waters for any sort of reaction, he shifted his body so it was completely facing her and leaned forward a bit, sliding a hand to the back of her head and the other down to her waist, holding her as he pushed her backwards onto her back softly.

Xandra pulled out of the kiss, eyes still closed and a gentle laugh escaping her lips when she realized she was on her back and laying on the ground. The boy's slow movements, his tenderness, his gentle hands, everything was so unlike the Rogue she thought she knew. She let out a deep, yet content, sigh and dropped her arms to her sides, smiling and opening her eyes to look up at him. She reached up and put a hand on his cheek, but remained silent for a few moments as she took what had just happened in. "Who knew the big, bad, Shadow Dragon could be so sweet," she whispered with a slight laugh to her tone.

Rogue looked down at her, leaning his head into the warmth of her hand and taking in her beauty. The way the light of the moon caressed her figure was remarkable and he smiled at the thought of making sure to take a mental photograph of this moment. He sighed contently, watching her for a moment before leaning down to kiss her again. When he pulled away a moment later, he chuckled. "Ya' know, I could say the same about you, Miss I-turn-into-a-rainbow-when-I'm-angry." He grinned at the glare she was giving him and broke into laughter as she pushed him over.

She stood up and looked down at him, giving him a smirk that easily matched her narrowed eyes. "You're an ass."

Rogue watched her walk off back to the tent and smiled, shaking his head after standing back up and following her inside. When he woke up the next morning and began packing things up so they could go back to the guild, all he could remember was the fact that he'd kissed Xandra, he'd crawled back into bed with her, held her as close as possible, and she told him that she was going to take the big, important, ridiculously dangerous job that Jiemma had mentioned a few days ago.


	18. 18: Xandra's Letter

Chapter 18: Xandra's Letter

_ I can't believe I've been separated from you guys for about a month and a half now. It's been an amazing ride over here in Sabertooth. A bit scary at times, but amazing nonetheless, haha. Hope training is going well for you guys. Sting wakes up earlier than Rogue, so the past two weeks we've been getting up and going out for runs. By the time we get back, Rogue's always got breakfast made for us. My plate's always made and put together nicely, while Sting's portions are thrown together sloppily and I always laugh, even if I've come to expect it. Frosch says it's because Rogue's jealous of our early morning runs. I think I'm going to ask him to join me tomorrow, before I leave on my mission I've been preparing for. Sorry this letter's so much shorter than the others have been. Jiemma wants me to investigate something in the mountains again. Apparently even Minerva turned it down, which only makes me want to complete the mission even more. Minerva's actually been warming up to me a bit lately, it's a bit weird, but whatever. Anyways, I've got to go and get some shut eye, especially if I'm going to wake up the sleepy head before I leave. Love you guys and I hope Fairy Tail has been amazing! Tell everyone I say hello and that I'll stop in after this mission. It shouldn't be more than a week or two, so expect me within the month!_

_ ~Your favorite mage, Xandra_

_P.S. Lilla, I hope you and Natsu haven't killed each other yet. He seems like a nice guy from the letters you've written me. Have you thought about maybe, ya' know, giving him a chance? He seems sorta' thick headed, but hey, he's a Dragon Slayer haha_

Natsu placed the paper back down on Lucy's desk, and looked over at the two blondes sitting on the bed. Lucy seemed deep in thought, leaning against a pillow and the headboard, while Lilla hugged her knees and stared out the window from her spot on the other end of the bed. She was still in her pajamas, a tank top and shorts, and the early morning sun's rays were running over her figure beautifully. Natsu's cheeks burned a bit as his eyes drifted over her figure. _Have you thought about maybe giving him a chance?_

Lilla sighed and closed her eyes a moment. "You read the letter again, Natsu?" she muttered without looking over at the boy. Lucy looked over at the fire dragon slayer and gave him a small frown.

Natsu shook his head, trying to shake the blush away, and looked back over at the desk. The letter was wrinkled, as if it'd be handled and read too many times to count. "When did you guys get this one?"

"Two months ago, right after Lilla and Espeo left to train," Lucy said with a sigh and put a hand on Lilla's knee, still watching Natsu. "We're worried, she was supposed to come visit after the mission it says."

"Maybe the mission hasn't ended yet, she didn't seem completely positive as to how long it would take. It's normal for missions given to someone by a master to be ridiculously long, right?" Lilla had turned to Natsu as she spoke, and the sadness in her eyes was something he never thought he'd see from such a confident woman.

She hopped off the bed and walked towards him, looking down at her feet and then up at the desk. She was in front of Natsu now, and he took a deep, shaky breath, which certainly wasn't something she wanted to hear. She was pulled into a tight hug almost immediately and the warmth that began to flow through her seemed to calm her emotions a bit.

Natsu slipped his strong arms under hers and wrapped them around the girl's waist carefully, hugging her to him in a tender embrace. He felt her wrap her own arms around his neck and he caught a small gasp as her breath seemed to get caught in her throat, and that simply made him hold her tighter. "There's no way you're crying," he muttered with a small laugh.

Lilla pulled her head away from his chest a bit and looked up at him, smiling with the smallest hint of a blush on her cheeks as she avoided his eyes. "Oi, shutup you."

Natsu grinned at her and leaned his forehead against hers. "We're going to find her. She chose Sabertooth, but she's got a Fairy Tail mark too, so she's just as much a part of our family."

Lilla searched his eyes as he leaned himself closer to her, realizing he was being completely serious and honest. Natsu was never completely serious unless it was something concerning his friends, and Lilla couldn't help but think about how nice that made her feel on the inside. She knew that if it had been her who was missing, he'd act and feel the same way he does now about Xandra.

Behind them, Loke had summoned himself onto Lucy's bed. He was sitting behind her, arms wrapped around her waist gently as she held a glittery Minor in her arms. Even though Xandra wasn't around, Minor always seemed to follow Loke around still. Lucy had grown used to this, and the spirit had really grown to like her. The blonde girl looked over her shoulder at the man holding her and frowned. "You guys don't know anything about it, do you?"

Lilla jumped a bit at the sound of Lucy's voice as she'd nearly forgotten she was in the room too. Her blush became much more visible now when she realized Loke had materialized there too and she shoved Natsu away, causing him to stumble backwards a little and sit on the chair at the desk with a thud. He looked up at the blonde with a gentle smile, shaking his head a little as she quickly requipped into her usual gladiator uniform.

What the girl standing in front of him didn't realize, was that if she had been in this situation, Natsu wouldn't be just as worried; he'd be tortured with the amount of heartache and worry it would cause him. Of course, there was no telling if he, himself, completely realized this, but with the look in his eyes as she glared down at him, one could be led to believe he did. _Have you thought about maybe giving him a chance?_

"Why are you looking at me like that," Lilla grumbled with a roll of her eyes, but her blush giving away the fact that she definitely liked the look he was giving her.

Natsu laughed and stood up, patting her cheek gently, "No reason." As he walked on by her to sit on the bed and say hi to Loke and Minor, the girl huffed and requipped again, this time into a black and white plaid skirt and a black tanktop with red and purple tiger ears poking out of her blonde hair.

Suddenly, the door to Lucy's apartment burst open and standing in the doorway was a panting Laxus. He seemed distraught and completely out of breath. "To the guild! NOW! There's a problem!"

Loke and Minor disappeared as Lucy, Natsu, and Lilla immediately followed behind Laxus; Lilla and Natsu taking their usual exit out the window while Lucy remained civil and used the door. When they got to the doors of the guild, Loke and Minor reappeared and Laxus threw the doors open, revealing a mangled body on the floor with Espeo on her knees and hovering over it, crying, with Erza and a man with blue hair and a facial tattoo by her side. Behind the man, whose name was Jellal, were the other members of his independent guild, Crime Sorcière. A black haired woman named Ultear and a pink haired girl named Meredy seemed just as visually upset as the rest of the guild, even if they didn't seem to understand who exactly the demon-looking girl was.

Jellal looked over as Fairy Tail's master made his way towards the body. "She has the mark of Sabertooth, but she told us to bring her here," he explained in a hurry, as if trying to justify his sudden bursting into the guild with a body possibly belonging to another guild.

Lilla's eyes went wide and she froze, seeing a dragon hybrid form that seemed similar to the one Mia had. Her breath shook as she opened her mouth and Natsu, who was suddenly glued to her side, grabbed her hand tightly as he heard her whisper to herself. "Xandra."


	19. 19: Notification

_Xandraaaaaa D:_

* * *

Chapter 19: Notification

Last week, the same day Erza, Espeo, Laxus, and Lilla had returned after two months on Tenrou Island, the Fairy Tail guild had received a letter from Sabertooth. It had been addressed to no one in particular, but had come from a pair of troubled mages.

_Hello Fairy Tail. I hate to write with such haste and to keep this so short, but we're currently scraping the area and mountains for anything we can find regarding a mission one of our mages took from Master Jiemma. If you hear from Xandra or see her, please let us know immediately. She was given an investigative mission two months ago and has not returned. It should have only taken 3 to 4 weeks at the most. Thank you._

_ -Rogue Cheney and Sting Eucliffe (and Frosch and Lector)_

Makarov had immediately called a mandatory guild meeting that even Gildarts had made sure to attend. He sent out three different search parties and they'd all returned empty handed.

Now, here they all were, hovered over the beaten body of a mage who had yet to return to her normal, human state. It was like she'd been beaten so badly that her body didn't have the strength to leave the form it was knocked unconscious in. But how had this happened?

Jellal had explained to Erza that he and his comrades had simply been traveling when they came across the strange form in the snow. Meredy had knelt down to brush the snow away, curious as to what the seemingly dead creature had been, when she realized it was some sort of humanoid. They'd immediately picked her up and taken her to the closest town and did what they could to heal the frostbite that had started forming on her body. She was nearly frozen solid it seemed, so when she began 'defrosting', they noticed the two guild marks on her skin. Obviously, two guild marks caused a bit of confusion, but luckily Xandra had apparently held a good couple of minutes of consciousness before saying how tired she was and drifting off into a sleep she had yet to wake up from. It had taken them a few days to get to the guild, and they'd thought about going to Sabertooth instead because it would have only taken them three quarters of a day to get there, but they decided to honor the girl's wish and bring her to Fairy Tail instead.

As soon as Lilla's body snapped back to reality, with the help of Natsu squeezing and shaking her hand to bring her back, she growled heavily. Her eyes began to glow and the rumbles flowing through her stomach and throat were those of a snarling tigress. "Someone notify Sabertooth, NOW," she hissed before running to Xandra's body. Natsu had refused to let go of her hand and had done his best to keep up so he didn't get dragged along. The glow in Lilla's eyes grew, along with the rumbling, while her teeth began to lengthen. She'd done battle with multiple guild members since returning, still not including Natsu, and had trained with Erza to help become more accustomed to the way magic worked in this world, but she had yet to show most of the guild her true potential and form as a Hellcat Demon. The only ones who'd seen her inner beast were the other three mages who'd been on Tenrou Island.

Erza looked up from beside Jellal and her eyes widened a bit as she recognized the glow immediately. "Natsu, take her outside."

Natsu nodded and squeezed Lilla's hand as tight as he possibly could, turning and walking towards the door. Lilla wouldn't budge though so he let go and moved in front of her, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. Her eyes were glowing brightly, and he frowned at her heavy breathing. He heard Espeo mutter 'she's been blinded already' and closed his eyes tightly. "So, the only way to get her to move is going to be with force," he muttered unhappily.

Espeo frowned and looked up at him, "You have to do it, Natsu, she needs to get out of here because I don't know how much longer she can hold herself from shifting."

"She's fighting her own magic?" Natsu blinked and looked at Lilla again, realizing the importance of getting her away from the seemingly lifeless body of her friend. "I'm sorry, Lilla," he whispered before letting out a fire dragon's roar that shoved the girl out the door and to the ground in front of the guild.

Espeo cringed a bit and looked over at Erza, who was back to watching Xandra as Wendy, the Sky Dragon Slayer with healing magic, did her best to help Xandra out of her slumber. "Did he really have to attack her like that?"

Erza glanced at Espeo and laughed half-heartedly, "What would you have done?"

Espeo blinked and then laughed a little, taking Xandra's hand in her own. "I probably would have shocked her with lightning or something, so I guess he had to do it…"

Master and his grandson, Laxus, reappeared in the main hall and informed everyone that they'd notified Sabertooth. Laxus knelt down beside Espeo and frowned, pitying her friend for whatever she'd gotten herself into. "No training later today, Esp."

Espeo looked over at Laxus, cocking her head a bit. "W-Why? I know I'm a lot weaker than Lilla but I know I can improve Laxus!" She looked down and bit her lip as she shut her eyes tight, dropping Xandra's hand before both of her own were clenched into tight fists. "I'm sorry for being such a disappointment as a student, Laxus," she whispered, only loud enough for those beside her to hear, and of course Gajeel's advanced hearing.

The dark man at the bar frowned at Espeo's words. Surely she couldn't actually think she could be compared to Lilla? Sure, maybe Lilla was stronger than her, but that couldn't be known for a fact. They'd never fought each other while in Fiore, to his knowledge, and their magics were incredibly different. Laxus would be an idiot to scold her, and if he did, Gajeel would jump to her side and stand up for her if she needed it. He'd been incredibly impressed by the girl on the first day, and had been hoping to help her with her training when she'd returned.

From beside Gajeel, Levy frowned as she noticed his muscles tense up. "Gajeel, what's wrong?" She muttered, drawing Pantherlily's attention as well.

Gajeel shook his head, taking a final sip of his beer and turning to watch the crowd. "Bookworm, is there anything you can do to help Espeo's friend?" The blunette beside him only frowned and he nodded.

"We don't have books here on their magic, and there's no way of researching their world when no one here even knew it existed. I wish there was something I could do, I hate feeling so useless!"

Gajeel looked over at her, taken aback by her sudden anger. "You aren't useless, Levy. Your support, I'm sure, is enough to help anyone. Believe me."

Levy felt her cheeks begin to burn as she looked over at Gajeel, who was smiling at her.

Meanwhile, Laxus had only blinked and stared at Espeo's sudden, deep depression. Had she thought that he'd spoken to the master about a few of her mishaps while away on Tenrou? He wasn't that shallow, and he was too proud of the progress the girl had made to even mention anything going poorly to anyone. He put a hand on her shoulder, and then moved it down a bit before grasping her arm tightly and pulling her up with him as he stood. He spun her and forced her to look at him, smacking her on the side of the head gently.

"Ow!" she grumbled and looked up at him with a glare.

"If you ever doubt your abilities again, that smack is going to send you into a wall. And I'll have Ever turn you into a statue for a day as punishment."

Espeo blinked at Laxus' anger with her and glanced at Evergreen, who gave her a grin and wink. The bright eyed girl looked back up at Laxus and frowned, wrapping her arms around him and sobbing into his chest. "I-I-I'm sorry, Laxus! I just don't know what to do! What if Xandra's dead?! Nothing we're doing is helping!"

Laxus went wide eyed and stared down at the girl, blinking in confusion at the outburst of tears that were now soaking through his shirt. He looked over at his comrades, Bickslow, Evergreen, and Freed and seemed to plead for help using only his eyes. His arms had lifted in shock and were now hanging awkwardly in the air as her grip around him became shockingly tight. Bickslow threw the palm of his hand to his forehead as Freed looked like he was about to burst into tears.

"Hug her back, you idiot," Evergreen hissed at him, voice a mere whisper knowing his dragon slayer ears would pick up her words.

Laxus nodded and wrapped his arms loosely around the girl, who relaxed a bit after feeling his arms around her. She sniffled a few times before letting go of him and trying to pull away, but Laxus wouldn't let her. He looked down at her with a sigh and moved a hand to the back of her head, pushing it against his chest gently. "She's going to be fine, Esp, you have to believe that. You've got to stay positive for her." He gave the brunette gazing up at him a small smile, "For you."

Espeo nodded a little and spun her body, trying to hide a blush from him, and ending up leaning her back into his chest a bit so she could keep an eye on Xandra. She glanced at Evergreen, who was grinning and had probably happily noticed they were matching, and then watched as Bickslow led Freed to the bar to apparently order him the strongest drink he could. "Wh-what's wrong with Freed?" Espeo asked, voice still stuttering from her earlier tears. She hadn't meant to say it out loud and gulped a bit when she realized she had.

Laxus blinked and looked over at the green haired man who had, somehow, already downed two cups who-knows-what at the bar and shrugged. "I'unno," he muttered, arms settling around the girl's neck loosely. He hadn't really taken into consideration how the two of them must have looked, but if having him wrapped around her was going to comfort her in her time of need, he was okay with that. He'd grown to like Espeo's company and his group, the Thunder God Tribe, had been excited to hear she was officially joining them and would be actually participating in their harder missions. The Tribe had helped him train her here and there to make her stronger before the Tenrou trip, and Evergreen had especially enjoyed her company. The fact that Ever was so nice to her, had almost worried Laxus at first, but it had turned out the woman's feelings were genuine. Maybe Elfman's kindness had rubbed off on the wench.

Espeo poked Laxus' arm and looked up at him, smirking at the smile on his face, which he didn't seem to realize was there. "What are you thinking about?" She was only asking to try and get her mind off of her own unhappiness, and maybe out of curiosity as well.

"You," Laxus muttered without a thought and then blinked, fixing what he said rather quickly. "Er, you and Evergreen. I just find it funny how nice she is to you." Espeo's smirk remained as her eyes narrowed at him. He narrowed his eyes back at her and grumbled, "What? What'd you want me to say?"

Espeo laughed and shook her head, leaning back into him a bit more and closing her eyes tight, trying to think positive thoughts for her friend. When he'd realized how stiff the girl's body felt, Laxus's hold around her tightened a bit, almost protectively. She seemed to loosen up a few moments later, but there was no doubt in his mind that, on the inside, she was easily cowering in fear for her friend.


	20. 20: The Perfect Distraction

Chapter 20: The Perfect Distraction

Natsu fell to his knees beside Lilla as she struggled to push herself up. Her eyes still had a faint glow, but even he could tell that she wasn't blind anymore. "Lilla! I'm sorry. Are you okay?" He tried to help her up, but her stumbling caught him off guard and they both tumbled back down to the ground, the Hellcat landing on top of him with a grunt.

She tried to push herself off of him, but her physical strength seemed to have been completely wiped away from the dragon slayer's blow.

"That wasn't even half strength," Natsu muttered as he sat himself up, holding the girl in his lap. "Lilla what's wrong?"

"I-I'm my most vulnerable when I'm holding myself back," she muttered, giving up on trying to stand and simply slumping into the boy's hold, grinning at him like a child who'd been defeated but had learned a lesson.

Natsu ran his hand through her hair tenderly and frowned. "I-I'm sorry…"

Lilla chuckled at his murmuring. "Don't be, you just saved me from getting into who knows how much trouble." She looked up at him and smiled before finally forcing herself to sit up a bit. Natsu, apparently, wasn't happy with the way she was still swaying back and forth a bit and he pulled her into his lap with a small grin.

"So I'm too thick headed to understand certain things, eh?" He raised a brow at the girl, giving her his classic, toothy grin. He'd wanted to question that comment from Xandra for a little while now, and considering Lilla needed a serious distraction, he figured now was a good time.

Lilla's eyes widened and a blush fell over her cheeks. "Ah, shit, I forgot to rip off the bottom part of the letter," she hissed and looked down, away from his happy eyes and hiding a frown.

The pink haired boy leaned his forehead against the side of her head gently, nosing her ear a bit. "You need to get your mind off of things so you don't shift," he whispered, lips hitting her ear lobe lightly, "So, let's get out of here. I'll take you to an early dinner. It'll be nice."

Lilla refused to turn to look at him now, knowing how red her face was because of the burning sensation she was feeling. Her entire body was warm, but that wasn't entirely because of the fire dragon currently holding her. Unfortunately, when she gets nervous, Lilla's ears turn red and begin to burn as well, and she could feel them burning along with her face. Natsu had pulled away from her a bit and was laughing, so she assumed he'd noticed her ear.

"Oops," he muttered with a grin before biting her ear.

Lilla's eyes went wide and she turned her head to face him, blush somehow deepening even more. "You just…bit me?!"

Natsu grinned at her and pushed her off of his lap with a smirk, standing and then offering her a hand to help her up as if to say sorry for pushing her over.

Lilla raised a brow and took his hand, pulling him back down to the ground, face first, and then standing on her own triumphantly. "Someone clearly missed me while I was gone," she said with a sly grin before walking away. She began to head towards the center of Magnolia, requipping into the plaid skirt and tank top combination from earlier and looking over her shoulder to grin at the boy. "Let's go, flame brain, you owe me dinner."

Natsu shook his head, watching her for a moment before standing and running to catch up with her. She took off before he could even get close to her and grinned. "Oh, I see how it is!"

Lilla laughed and, when she was out of his sight, turned a quick corner and waited for him in the shadows. They were near a park they'd walked through before so she knew he'd go and look for her there. When he ran past her hiding place and slowed to walk near the entrance, she pounced. She snuck up behind him and hugged him tightly from behind with a grin. "Caught you!"

Natsu jumped and a heavy blush immediately found itself on his cheeks. "Damn, woman, you're gonna' give me a heart attack!" He looked over at her as she rested her chin on his shoulder and closed her eyes, a care-free smile settling on her lips. He leaned his head towards her, pressing his forehead against the side of her head again. "Cute tiger ears, by the way, the reds of the feline ears and your human ears seem to match quite nicely" he muttered, grinning, and he quickly felt her hand smack him on the back of the head.

"Natsu!"

The new, very recognizable, voice made a low rumble come from Lilla's throat and Natsu sighed as he picked his head up, eyes landing on a girl with short, white hair that was running up to him, waving and smiling.

"Hey Lisanna, I'm kinda' busy right now." Natsu muttered, resting his hands on top of Lilla's, which were on his stomach again while her chin was still on his shoulder. He didn't even have to look over at the blonde to know she was giving Lisanna a look that would even have Erza second guessing her presence.

The white haired girl glanced at Lilla, giving a small glare and then shrugging. "I'll see you tonight then." She walked by the two with a huff, snorting at Lilla with another glare and continuing on her way back to the guild.

"What's tonight?" Natsu called, cocking his head to the side a bit as he looked over his shoulder at Lisanna.

"My birthday dinner, Natsu." Lisanna had stopped, infuriated by the fact that he'd forgotten.

"Oh, cool! That should be fun! Well I'm busy tonight, sorry!" Natsu scratched the back of his head, smiling as he spoke.

Lisanna's jaw dropped and Lilla grinned at the girl. "Bye Lisanna, happy birthday!" She called as she leaned her head into the back of Natsu's neck, hugging him tightly from behind with one arm as the other waved goodbye to the girl, who was still standing there, completely dumbfounded by the whole situation.

Natsu laughed a little and looked forward, scratching his head again. "Woops," he muttered and then laughed some more.

Lilla smirked at him, "You're horrible." She moved to his side and wrapped her arms around the arm he'd held out to her as they walked.

Natsu only smirked back, narrowing his eyes at her as he slipped his hand into one of hers. "You're clearly rubbing off on me, then."

"No, I'm pretty sure you were done for before you met me."

The two of them laughed and continued through the park, discussing what had happened over the past couple of months. After a long while, they finally approached a simple café, their stomachs roaring ferociously by the time they arrived at a table.

"Hey, where's Happy?" Lilla asked after they were about halfway through the meal.

"He's been sleeping at the house all day, something about his stomach hurting from eating too much fish last night." Natsu laughed, speaking with his mouth full and earning himself a raised brow and a bit of a look from the girl across from him. He gulped his mouthful of food down and leaned back, grinning. "Sorry."

Lilla rolled her eyes, and then with a laugh stole a French fry from him and purposely spoke while chewing. "Can we go and check on him after we're done?"

Natsu smiled from across the table, shaking his head at her mocking him, but glad to see how concerned she was with his best friend. "Of course."

Lilla smiled and took a sip of her water, muttering before beginning to eat again. "Good, I've really missed him."


	21. 21: Checking In

Chapter 21: Checking In

With two cups of hot chocolate in her hands, Mirajane slipped through the doorway of the infirmary and walked towards the bed Xandra was now laying on. The dragon mage was bandaged up and still stuck in her hybrid form. Mirajane set the two cups down on the table beside the bed and gave a warm smile to the two, sleeping girls beside the bed. Lilla was on one side while Espeo was on the other. They'd both set up chairs beside the bed and were each holding one of Xandra's hands while they slept peacefully. Even though the circumstances were what they were, Mirajane couldn't help but be happy about the fact that the three friends had once again been reunited. It was nice to see that even though they were so far apart in a world they didn't know much about, they were still always going to be there for each other.

The white haired woman stood and scanned Xandra's body, narrowing her eyes a bit and taking in the dragon hybrid form carefully. It reminded her of her Satan Soul takeovers, but was obviously more dragon-like than demon-like. She wondered if that's how the form always looked, or if it had changed along with the other girls' magic when they came to Fiore. Mira then frowned at the thought of the girls being stuck in Fiore. Everyone in the guild had grown to love Espeo and Lilla like family, even the people who'd been worrisome at first. The thought of the girls suddenly no longer being in the guild was something that she really couldn't even wrap her head around anymore.

With a small sigh, the beautiful bartender glanced at the sleeping girls again. She knelt down beside Espeo, since she was on the same side as the table, and shook her shoulder a bit. When the girl groaned and opened an eye, Mirajane smiled and whispered to her. "There's some hot chocolate for Lilla and yourself on the table, it gets a bit cold up here at night sometimes." The white haired woman stood up and smiled at Espeo as she muttered a thank you and went back to sleep, squeezing Xandra's hand a bit more.

As she neared the entryway to the room, Mirajane noticed that Laxus and Natsu were both standing in her way. She smirked at the boys but said nothing other than 'Excuse me' as she pushed her way in between and through them to head back down to her post behind the bar.

"Oi," Laxus grumbled and raised a brow at the woman as she shoved him to the side a bit. He'd been standing in the doorway longer than Natsu, and really hadn't even noticed him until he'd looked at Mirajane. "What are you doing here, Natsu?"

Natsu smiled up at Laxus and looked back towards the three sleeping girls. "Same as you, I'm checking on them. Happy wanted to come and check on them too after I told him what had happened while he was asleep."

"Aye. I miss everything," the blue cat looked up from the ground, pouting after his last words.

Natsu smiled at the cat and took a few steps into the room, leaning against the wall and looking over at Laxus. "So, you and the lightning wolf get some good training done on Tenrou?"

Laxus nodded his head, walking into the room as well and settling on the chair closest to the door. He hadn't taken his eyes off of the girls and spoke in a semi-monotone voice. "She's much more powerful than I thought she'd grow to be; I'm proud of her. Oi, and that wolf-takeover form she's got is real nice too." His voice perked up a bit as a small smile formed on his lips. "Her lightning magic was apparently granted to her through a Greek God named Zeus. She was shocked that I didn't know anything about Greek Gods and promised to tell me all of their stories after she was finally able to win a battle against me. She said she'd rather focus on beating me and then she'd help me learn about what a Protector is." He chuckled and shook his head, "Hasn't happened yet, but I'm just as curious as ever about the kind of mage she is."

Natsu looked over at Laxus as his tone of voice changed and watched as everything about the big man seemed to perk up when he spoke about Espeo. Happy looked up at Natsu and grinned before shifting a toothy grin to Laxus, "You _liiiiiiiike_ her."

Laxus snorted and looked over at the cat, "Shutup, Happy." He looked back over at Espeo and laughed at himself as he noticed she was still matching his outfit. "I could kill Evergreen for that, but hey, I can't help it if my closet suits the girl quite nicely."

Natsu laughed and looked between the wolf and man a few times before realizing she was wearing the girl-version of his outfit. "Evergreen did that?" He'd heard rumors through the guild while the group had been off training that Evergreen had given Espeo a second bag of clothes, but he hadn't believed them until now.

"Heh, yeah. The wench went through my closet and made and bought anything and everything she could to make sure Espeo had an exact set of my clothes. Apparently Lucy had helped her make a few things, Erza too. The women in this guild are ridiculously strange."

Natsu nodded his head and laughed, agreeing as Happy threw out an 'Aye sir!', causing Laxus to look over at the two of them with a smirk.

"So, how'd you get Lilla to calm down? You barely even hit her and she was knocked off her feet. I was a bit shocked after seeing what she can do on Tenrou. Chick's a handful, better be careful with her."

A blush fell over Natsu's cheeks and his chin fell into his chest. Laxus raised a brow at the pink haired idiot but remained silent. Happy seemed a bit confused as well, so clearly his best friend hadn't told him everything. "I, er, took her to dinner," he muttered and then picked his head up and quickly began speaking again. "She's at her most vulnerable when she's holding back her demon form because she's focusing everything on that instead of being able to protect herself. It makes sense."

Happy's eyes grew and he blinked, not even giving Laxus time to react before springing into the air and flying right into his partner's face. "You went on a date?!"

"Oi, Happy, be quiet!" Natsu swatted at the cat, who wouldn't stop poking his face and shouting. "No, seriously, you're going to wake them up!"

"Aye, sorry Natsu," Happy muttered and settled on the boy's shoulder. "You went on a date. With _Lilla?!_"

Laxus pressed his lips together tightly to hold back laughter. He wanted to join Happy in battering Natsu, but a part of him was quite proud of the boy for working up that kind of courage, especially with a hard-headed woman who seemed ridiculously similar to himself. Lilla and Natsu were going to be quite the pair in fights, but outside of battle? The two of them reminded the lightning dragon slayer of how Gray and Natsu were with each other, constantly picking on one another with name calling and even getting physical. It was ridiculously entertaining to watch and he couldn't wait to see what kind of trouble the fire dragon was going to get himself into when he used the wrong tone with Lilla now. "Probably going to be repairing the guild a lot more than usual," Laxus muttered to himself with a chuckle.

Natsu caught the comment and looked over at him with a grin, "Just don't go causing the lightning storm of the century with Espeo, okay?"

Laxus laughed and shook his head, standing. "Watch it, idiot," the man spoke with a laugh and then gave Natsu and Happy a nod before exiting the infirmary and heading back to the main guild hall.

After Laxus left, Happy and Natsu made their way to Lilla's side of the bed. Happy bounced onto the bed gently and curled up under Xandra's arm, falling asleep rather quickly. It was easily already midnight or later, and that had just clicked in the boy's brain. "It was a long day," he muttered as he pulled a chair up beside Lilla quietly. He angled it so he could wrap his arms around the girl and pull her into his lap. With his foot, he shifted the chair she'd been sitting on and made a makeshift bed out of the two chairs.

Lilla opened her eyes as her hand slipped out of Xandra's and she was pulled on top of something. She found that Natsu had pulled her into his lap and that he was stretched across two of the room's chairs. His arms were wrapped around her waist and her back was leaning against his chest gently. He looked down at her and smiled, chuckling a bit as he spoke, "Morning my demon."

Lilla laughed and rolled her eyes, pulling her legs up and laying them in between his as she shifted onto her side so she could see Xandra. She noticed Happy resting under the girl's arm and frowned, knowing he'd probably been hurt by the news. "How is he?"

Natsu hugged her a bit more and shifted a bit, "He was pretty upset, but is doing better now. Especially since he found out I took you on a date."

Lilla laughed and sighed before beginning to drift back to sleep. "Gnight Natsu." A long pause. "Thank you."

Natsu blinked and watched her. Why was she thanking him? He opened his mouth to question her, but she was already asleep.

"Thank you for being here for me," she muttered. "I need you guys."

Natsu blushed a bit and squeezed her as she requipped into pajamas in her sleep. He easily fell asleep as well, his chin resting on top of his Hellcat's head and a smile on his lips.


End file.
